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LIBRARY OF CX)NGRESS 






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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap. Copyright No..„„__ 

Shelf.„.'[R.q 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Clothe us as Thy lilies."— />a^^ 151. 



Frontispiece. 



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! REFLECTED LIGHTS 

FROM 

"THE FACE OF THE DEEP" 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 



n 



SELECTED AND ARRANGED 
BY 

W. M. L. JAY 
I 



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NEW YORK 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

31 West Twenty-third Street 

1899 



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40257 



Copyright, iSgg 

BY 

E. P. BUTTON & CO. 



AIJ6 4^1899 I 




The Library 
OF Congress 




tTbe tftntcBerbocftir preea, flew fi?orft 






PREFACE 

The devotional poems of Christina Ros- 
setti have an assured place in Christian 
hearts, but her prose works are less known, 
though scarcely less deserving in their way. 
They are deeply spiritual, with an occa- 
sional quaintness of phrase and a spice of 
humor that remind the reader of the re- 
ligious writers of earlier times. The prin- 
cipal one of these works, entitled The Face 
of the JDeep^ furnishes the bulk of the pres- 
ent volume. It is a running commentary 
on the Book of Revelations, the title being 
meant to indicate that Miss Rossetti did 
not claim to have made any profound or 
critical study of those deep waters, but 
only to have sought for the lessons that 
she believed were to be found on or near 
their surface by all who studied them 
diligently and prayerfully. Through the 
book are scattered some of the loveliest 

• • • 
HI 



iv ©retacc 

lyrics and sonnets that she ever wrote. I 
have found the work so stimulating and 
helpful for myself that I dare to hope I 
have done a favor to others by bringing 
out into clearer view and easier reach 
many of the beautiful, inspiring, and com- 
forting thoughts that are often hidden away 
among much matter for winch an unleisured 
reader would have no time, and which a 
desultory one might find unattractive. 
Thus they become ** Reflected Lights/' 

As before said, the greater part of these 
** Lights *' are from TAe Face of the Deep ; 
but with them, for the occasional illustra- 
tion or carrying out of a particular thought, 
have been mingled a few from a smaller 
work of Christina Rossetti*s, entitled, Time 
Flies, and also some brief extracts from 
her first volume of poems. 

W. M. L. Jay, 

New York, 1899. 



CONTENTS 



THE LIGHT OF LOVE ..." 

THE LIGHT OF FAITH 

THE LIGHT OF HOPE 

THE LIGHT OF PATIENCE 

THE LIGHT OF HUMILITY 

THE LIGHT OF OBEDIENCE 

THE LIGHT OF WISDOM . 

THE LIGHT OF ENCOURAGEMENT . 

LIGHT FOR LABOR .... 

LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH . 

LIGHT THROUGH SHADOWS . 

LIGHT FROM NATURE 

THE LIGHT OF SACRIFICE 

THE LIGHT OF PENITENCE 

LIGHT FROM THE CROSS 

LIGHT FOR THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF 

DEATH 

LIGHT FROM PARADISE . 
LIGHT FROM TIME 
LIGHT FROM ETERNITY . 
LIGHT HERE AND THERE 



PAGE 

I 

21 

31 

43 
55 
63 
69 

79 

95 

109 

129 

139 
155 
165 
175 

183 
193 

205 

215 
233 



\ 






i 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Facing Page 



FRONTISPIECE. 

{^The sitting figure is said to be a likeness of 

Christina Rossetti.) 
I CANNOT PLEAD MY LOVE OF THEE . 

WHEN A CLOUD RECEIVED HIM 

HOPE ..••••'* 

THE WISE MEN .••••' 

THUS PONDERING, I LOOKED DOWN 

ONE SORROW MORE . • • * * 

THE widow's MITE . • • ' ' 

THE SPRING SHALL FAIL . • • 

IF I DO NOT PRAY . . • • ' 

THERE SHALL BE NO MORE SEA 

THE POPPY SAITH . 

THE RICH YOUNG MAN . 

PENITENCE . 

IF CHRIST HATH DIED . 

UNSPOTTED LAMBS 

THINGS TEMPORAL 

LIFT UP THINE EYES 

VU 



12 

i6 
34^ 

62^ 

74 ' 
88 

102^ 

116 

130 
142 

156 

168 

186 

200 

210 

224 ^.. 



THE LIGHT OF LOVE 

If love is not worth loving, then life is not 
worth living, 
Nor aught is worth remembering, but 
well forgot ; 
For store is not worth storing and gifts are 

not worth giving, H 

If love is not. 



What is the beginning ? Love. What the 
course ? Love still. 

What the goal ? The goal is Love on the 
happy hill. 

Is there nothing then but Love, search we 
sky or earth ? 

There is nothing out of Love hath per- 
petual worth : 

All things flag but only Love ; all things 
fail or flee ; 

There is nothing left but Love worthy you 
or me. 

Is love then the only crowned virtue ? 
Yes, only love ; inasmuch as the others, 
divorced from love, would not be virtues. 

Without love we shall never understand 
either God or His saints. 

Love is the key of life and death, 
Of hidden heavenly mystery ; 

Of all Christ is, of all He saith, 
Love is the key. 

3 



4 TRcfLcctci) Xigbtd 

As three times to His Saint He saith, 
He saith to me, He saith to thee, 

Breathing His grace-conferring breath, 
" Lovest thou Me ? '' 

Ah, Lord, I have such feeble faith, 
Such feeble hope to comfort me. 

But love it is, as strong as death, 
And I love Thee. 

" Zove is the fulfilling of the Law^ 

Love is alone the worthy law of love : 
All other laws have presupposed a taint : 
Love is the law from kindled saint to 
saint, 
From lamb to lamb, from tender dove to 

dove : 
Love is the motive of all things that move 
Harmonious by free will without con- 
straint : 
Love learns and teaches : love shall 
man acquaint 
With all he lacks — which all his lack is 
love. 

Whoso breaks the law at one point is 
guilty of all. Defective love is defective 



XLbc %iQbt of %ovc 5 

all over, yet very probably it is particularly 
defective at some one point : if so, that is 
an obvious point to take in hand first. 
For practical purposes (if we mean to be 
practical) efforts should be concentrated 
rather than diffused ; and commence ref- 
ormation somewhere we must, on pain of 
otherwise achieving it nowhere. Every 
inch of waste ground may equally need 
weeding, yet not the fabled Briareus him- 
self could weed the whole simultaneously 
at one swoop. 

Love, to be love, must walk Thy way 

And work Thy will ; 

Or, if Thou say^ '' Lie still," 
Lie still and pray. 

Love will not mar her peaceful face 

With cares undue, — 

Faithless and hopeless too 
And out of place. 

Love here hath vast beatitude ; 

What shall be hers 

Where there is no more curse, 
But all is good ? 



6 IReflecteD ILiQbte 

Love from without cannot accomplish 
its own work, unless there be some response 
from love within. 

Lord, dost Thou look on me, and will not I 
Launch out my heart to Heaven to look 

on Thee ? — 
Here, if one loved me I should turn to 
see, 
And often think on him and often sigh, 
And by a tender friendship make reply 
To love gratuitous poured forth on me, 
And nurse a hope of happy days to be, 
And mean * * until we meet * * in each * * good- 
bye." 
Lord, Thou dost look and love is in Thine 
eyes, 
Thy heart is set upon me day and night. 
Thou stoopest low to set me far 
above : 
O Lord, that I may love Thee make me 
wise; 
That I may see and love Thee grant me 
sight ; 
And give me love that I may give 
Thee love. 



Zbc Xl^bt of Xove 7 

While we pray for love, let us act as if 
already possessed of love. 

Thy lovely saints do bring Thee love, 

Incense and joy and gold, 
Fair star with star, fair dove with dove, 

Beloved by Thee of old. 
I, Master, neither star nor dove. 

Have brought Thee sins and tears; 
Yet I, too, bring a little love 

Amid my flaws and fears; — 
A trembling love that faints and fails, 

Yet still is love of Thee, — 
A wondering love that hopes and hails 

Thy boundless love of me; 
Love kindling faith and pure desire. 

Love following on to bliss — 
A spark, O Jesus, from Thy fire, 

A drop from Thine abyss. 

** Love all for Jesus, but Jesus for Him- 
self,'* writes a master of the science of 
love. 

And whatever may be doubtful, this re- 
mains certain: every man who loves God 
a little, is loved by Him much ; every man 



8 TReflecteD %iQbtB 

who loves God much, is loved by Him 

more. 

•i- 

Any who pray and love enjoy already no 

stinted blessing. Even to will to love is to 

love. 

Dost thou not will, poor soul ? Yet I re- 
ceive 
The inner unseen longings of the soul ; 
I guide them towards Me; I control 
And charm hearts till they grieve. 
If thou desire, it yet shall come to pass, 
Though thou but wish indeed to choose 

My love, — 
For I have power in earth and heaven 
above. 

The will to love Him He accepts and 
quickens into love : the faintest emotion of 
love towards Him He acknowledges and 
is ready to confirm and develop. 

Because Love is the fountain, I discern 
The stream as love; for what but love 

should flow 
From Fountain Love ? not bitter from the 

sweet ! 



Cbe %iQbt of %ovc g 

Where love is, there comes sorrow 
To-day or else to-morrow; 
Endure the mood, 
Love only means our good. 

Where love is, there comes pleasure, 
With or withouten measure. 
Early or late 
Cheering the sorriest state. 

Who would not choose a sorrow 
Love's self will cheer to-morrow ? — 
One day of sorrow. 
Then such a long to-morrow! 

How little must I love the world ? How 
much may I love it ? 

Love it to the fulness of thy heart's de- 
sire, so thou love it with self-sacrifice: for 
thus to love it is after the mind of God, 
the pattern of Christ: ** God so loved the 
world that He gave His only Begotten Son^ 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish^ but have everlasting life, ' * 

O Lord, seek us, O Lord, find us 
In Thy patient care ; 



X 



lo IReflecteD Xigbte 

Be Thy love before, behind us, 

Round us, everywhere; 
Lest the god of this world blind us, 

Lest he speak us fair, 
Lest he forge a chain to bind us, 

Lest he bait a snare. 
Turn not from us, call to mind us. 

Find, embrace us, bear; 
Be Thy love before, behind us, 

Round us, everywhere. 

O ye who taste that Love is sweet. 
Set waymarks for the doubtful feet 
That stumble on in search of it. 

Sing notes of love, that some who hear 
Far off, inert, may lend an ear. 
Rise up and wonder and draw near. 

Lead lives of love, that others who 
Behold your lives may kindle too 
With love, and cast their lots with you. 

O Gracious Lord God, who deignest to 
make of man Thy mirror, that we in one 
another may behold Thine Image and love 
Thyself; unto everyone of us grant, I be- 



Zbc %iQbt of %ovc II 

seech Thee, thus to love and thus to be 
beloved. 

Loveless faith is dead, being alone. 
Loveless hope leads to shame. Loveless 
obedience makes fair the outside, but 
within is rottenness. 

'' I was hungry and thou feddest Me; 

Yea, thou gavest drink to slake my 
thirst.'* 
** O Lord, what love-gift can I offer Thee 

Who hast loved me first ? '' 

** Feed My hungry brethren for My sake; 
Give them drink for love of them and 
Me : 
Love them as I loved thee when Bread I 
brake 
In pure love of thee." 

*'Yea, Lord, I will serve them by Thy 
grace, 
Love Thee, seek Thee in them, wait 
and pray; 
Yet would I love Thee, Lord, face to face, 
Heart to heart, one day." 



12 . iReflecte^ Xt^bts 

* ' Let to-day fulfil its daily task ; 

Fill thy heart and hand to them and Me: 
To-morrow thou shalt ask, and shalt not 
ask 

Half I keep for thee.*' 

To whom does a man give himself ? 
To one whom he loves as himself. Such 
is the standard of self-gift, and Christ — 
Very Man no less than Very God — will 
not fall short of it. 

Lord, I cannot plead my love of Thee; 

1 plead Thy love of me ; — 

The shallow conduit hails the unfathomed 
sea. 

* * Ife that loved us ' ' thereby wins our 
love; and forthwith by virtue of love faith 
lives, hope is justified, obedience is en- 
franchised. 

Because Thy love hath sought me, 
All mine is Thine and Thine is mine. 

Because Thy blood hath bought me, 
I will not be mine own, but Thine. 




O Lord, I cannot plead my love of Thee."— /^^^^ 12. 



Ubc %iQbt ot %ovc 13 

I lift my heart to Thy heart — 

Thy heart, sole resting-place for mine: 
Shall Thy heart crave for my heart, 

And shall not mine crave back for Thine? 



Faith discerns, embraces. Hope antici- 
pates, aspires. Fear curbs, spurs. Love 
curbs, spurs, anticipates, aspires, embraces, 
cleaves unto, unites. Love is the panoply 
of graces. 

Everything that is born must die; 

Everything that can sigh may sing; 
Rocks in equal balance low or high 

Everything. 

Honey-comb is weighed against a sting; 
Hope and Fear take turns to touch the 
sky; 
Height and depth respond alternating. 

O my soul spread wings of love to fly. 
Wings of dove that soar on homebound 
wing; 

Love trusts Love till Love shall justify 
Everything. 



14 IRetlecteD %iQhtB 

^* jFirsf be reconciled to thy brother^ and 
then come and offer thy gift,'' — Lord Jesus, 
since I can never deliver my brother, grant 
me at least never to wrong him. Enable 
us by love to serve one another, and to 
offer ourselves unto Thee. 

Me and my gift, kind Lord, behold; 

Be not extreme to test or sift ; 
Thy love can turn to fire and gold 

Me and my gift. 

If much were mine, then manifold 
Should be the offering of my thrift ; 

I am but poor, yet love makes bold 
Me and my gift. 

God accepts dues as gifts. Man receives 
gifts as dues. 

* * They that know Thy Name will put their 
trust in Thee, * ' 

Lord God of Hosts, most Holy and most 
High, 
What made Thee tell Thy Name of Love 
to me ? 



Cbe %iQbt ot Xove 15 

What made Thee live our life ? what made 
Thee die ? 
** My love of thee/' 

O Lord, what is that best thing in the sky 
Which makes heaven heaven as Thou 
hast promised me ? — 
Yea, makes it Christ to live, and gain to 
die? 
** My love of thee/' 

We know not a millionth part of what 
Christ is to us, but perhaps we even less 
know what we are to Him. 

If Thou desire our love, who shall give 
us love wherewith to love Thee except 
Thou who art Love give it to us ? Help- 
less we are, and our helplessness appeals 
to Thee. 

Lord, give me love that I may love Thee 
much, 
Yea, give me love that I may love Thee 

more. 
And all for love may worship and adore, 
And touch Thee with love's consecrated 
touch. 



i6 IReflecteD Xf^bta 

I halt to-day, be love my cheerful crutch, 
My feet to plod — some day my wings to 
soar. 

* * He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in Gody 
and God in him,'" 

Our heaven must be within ourselves. 
Our home and heaven the work of faith. 

All through this race of life which shelves 
Downward to death. 

So faith shall build the boundary wall, 
And hope shall plant the secret bower, 

That both may show magnifical 
With gem and flower. 

While over all a dome must spread, 
And love shall be that dome above; 

And deep foundations must be laid, 
And these are love. 

So long as eyes could see, and ears hear, 
and hands handle the Word of Life, Christ 
abode for the most part unseen, unheard, 
untouched; but when a cloud received 
Him out of sight, then it became possible 




When a cloud receiv^ed Him out of sight." — Page i6. 



Zbc %\Qbt ot Xove 17 

for all mankind at all times and in all 
places to behold Him with the eye of faith, 
listen to Him with the ear of hope, hold 
Him fast and not let Him go with the 
hands of adoring love. 

Lord God, we see not, yet we know. 
By love we dwell with patience and de- 
sire, 
And loving so and so desiring pray: 
Thy will be done in earth as heaven 
to-day, 
As yesterday it was, to-morrow so — 
Love offering love on love's self-feeding 
fire. 

Lord, give us, I beseech Thee, grace to 
love Thee whom now we see not, and for 
Thy sake to love all whom we see; and 
grant us one day to inherit the blessing of 
those who, not having seen, yet have be- 
lieved and loved. 

My heart is yearning; 

Behold my yearning heart, 
And stoop low to satisfy 
Its lonely, beseeching cry. 

For Thou its fulness art. 



i8 IReflecteD Xfflbts 

Lord God Almighty, suffer us not to 
withdraw from the embrace of Thy love. 
Thy love our consolation, Thy love our 
strong safeguard, we greatly need. For 
oftentimes our contrarieties chill human 
love, leaving us lonely as sparrow on house- 
top, owl in desert, pelican in wilderness. 
Lord of patience and consolation, deign 
to fetch us back out of the loneliness of 
our perversity into meek charity with all. 



* * Ye that love the Lord, hate evil, ' * — Good 
it is to hate what Christ hateth, better still 
to love what He loveth, and what He is. 
. , . If hatred be our strongest feature 
of Christ-likeness, well may we betake our- 
selves to dust and ashes, to repentance and 
first works ; for, without love, to hate even 
the same object is to hate it out of a far 
different heart. 

f Extremes meet; therefore let us work 
round to hatred by way of love. A long 
round perhaps, but an absolutely safe one. 
Were we even to die in mid-pilgrimage, we 
might hope to be accepted according to 



Ubc %iQbt ot %ovc 19 

that we had, if not according to that we 
had not. 

Love can make us like Saint Peter, 
Love can make us like Saint Paul, 

Love can make us like the blessed 
Bosom friend of all — 

Great Saint John — though we be small. 

Love which clings and trusts and worships, 

Love which rises from a fall, 
Love which, teaching glad obedience. 

Labors most of all — 
Love makes great the great and small. 

Dare we, then, aspire to become like 
Saint John ? Wherefore not, when we 
are bidden and invited to become like 
Christ ? 

Afy heart is sore pained within me ; and 
the terrors of death have fallen upon me^ 

Our hands are slackened and our strength 
has failed; . . . 

Faith faints, Hope faints, even Love him- 
self has paled. 

Nay ! — Love lifts up a face like any rose 



20 IReflccteD %iQbt6 

Flushing and sweet above a thorny stem, 
Softly protesting that the way he knows, 
And as for Faith and Hope will carry 

them 
Safe to the gate of New Jerusalem, 
Where light shines full and where the palm- 
tree blows. 

Love understands the mystery, whereof 
We can but spell a surface history: 

Love knows, remembers; let us trust in 
Love : 
Love understands the mystery. 

Love weighs the event, the long pre-history, 
Measures the depth beneath, the height 

above, 
The mystery with the ante-mystery. 

To love and to be grieved befits a dove 
Silently telling her bead history: 

Trust all to Love, be patient and approve : 
Love understands the mystery. 



THE LIGHT OF FAITH 

Her eyes were like some fire-enshrining 
gem, 
Were stately like the stars, and yet were 
tender; 
Her figure charmed me like a windy stem 
Quivering and drooped and slender. 
• •••••• 

Then marked I how a chain sustained her 
form, 
A chain of living links not made nor 
riven ; 
It stretched sheer up through lightning, 
wind, and storm. 
And anchored fast in heaven. 



21 



Intelligence is required of some; faith 
is required of all. 

Is it disappointing to be restricted to 
faith ? Faith, the grace, is a higher en- 
dowment than intelligence, the gift. 

Who knows ? God knows: and what He 
knows 

Is well and best: 
The darkness hideth not from Him, but 

glows 
Clear as the morning or the evening rose 
Of east or west. 

Wherefore man's strength is to sit still — 

Not wasting care 
To antedate to-morrow's good or ill, 
Yet watching meekly, watching with good 
will, 

Watching to prayer. 

Some rising or some setting ray 

From east or west 
If not to-day, why then another day — 

23 



24 IRetlecteD %t^bt0 

Will light each dove upon her homeward 
way 

Safe to her nest. 

* ' / looked^ and behold^ a door was opened 
in heaven, ' ' — If we will not look, we should 
not behold even though a door were opened 
in heaven for our enlightenment. . . 
Let us not, until we have looked, despair 
of seeing somewhat. Having looked, we 
shall not despair. 

Beyond the darkness, light; beyond the 
scathe. 
Healing; beyond the cross a palm-branch 
tree ; 
Beyond death, life; — on evidence of faith 
I lift mine eyes to see. 

Whether natural or spiritual, the eyes 
that look are the eyes likely to see. 

Two things I ask of Thee; 
Deny not me! — 

Eyesight and light 
Thy blessed face to see. 

Though his eyes be sealed against sun 
and moon, he is not blind who sees Christ. 



XLbc %igbt ot jfaltb 25 

The longest and keenest trials of time 
become comparatively petty, trivial, in- 
considerable, when strong faith weighs 
and measures them. 

Tumult and trouble, trouble and toil, 
Yet peace withal in a painful heart; 

Never a grudge and never a broil, 
And ever the better part! 

* ' T/iou hast created all things^ and for 
Thy pleasure they are and were created, ' ' — 
If I would explain to my own comprehen- 
sion how this can be, I should not suc- 
ceed. . . . The existence of evil silences 
me. I cannot understand; I can only 
trust. 

Nevertheless for practical purposes all is 
clear as the day. All things are and were 
created for the Divine good pleasure. 
Therefore I, for one, am capable of pleas- 
ing God, and it becomes me strenuously 
and gladly to do so. Because He hath no 
pleasure in the death of him that dieth, it 
becomes me to turn myself and live. I 
am bound myself to please God in the 



26 IReflected %iQbt6 

manner He appoints. I am not bound to 
account for His will and pleasure at large. 

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
right ? 

Yea, Lord, although Thou say me nay. 
Shall not His will be life and light ? 

Yea, Lord, although Thou slay. 



The shortest day of the year, the day 
which, having least light, has light suffi- 
cient, harmonizes with the apostle [Saint 
Thomas] whose faith indeed ran short, yet 
by Christ's help lasted out. 

Light at its lowest ebb can increase, so 
long as its source is the sun, for the sun 
faileth not. 

Faith at its dimmest spark can rekindle, 
so long as it keeps Christ in view, for 
much more than the natural sun, that Sun 
of Righteousness faileth not. 

*' And He went forth conquering and to 
conquer y — Experience attests ** conquer- 
ing**; faith protests ** and to conquer. 



»> 



Zbc %iQbt ot jfaitb 27 

Experience bears noble witness; but faith, 
yet more noble, meets God as it were half- 
way and becomes His herald. 

Experience follows and gives thanks; 
faith precedes and offers praise. Ex- 
perience keeps pace with time ; Faith, out- 
stripping time, forestalls eternity. Faith 
is the Elias of virtues, girt up and running 
before her advancing King. Faith is the 
Saint John Baptist of graces, her joy is ful- 
filled without sight. 



* * Though He slay me^ yet will I trust in 
Him,'' — Perhaps for us the main point of 
that text roots itself in the word will. 
None predicates of him he can or he ought : 
he alone says, and says only, / will. He 
says not, I do ; for far from him be lying 
lips and a deceitful tongue. He says, 
/ will : and the man who has the will to 
say, / willy has latent within him the power 
to bring to pass by God's assisting grace 
the purpose of that good will. His dew is 
as the dew of herbs, his earth has cast out 
her dead. 



28 IRetlecteD Xi^bts 

Although to-day He prunes my twigs with 
pain, 
Yet doth His blood nourish my heart 
and root; 
To-morrow I shall put forth buds again, 
And clothe myself with fruit. 

Faith, though feeling companionless in 
a faithless generation, because unwitting 
of God's seven thousand like-minded ones, 
must endure. 

Yet still the light of righteousness beams 
pure. 
Beams to me from the world of far-off 
day,— 
Lord, who hast called them happy that 
endure. 
Lord, make me such as they! 

*' Faith, whose is the promise to remove 
mountains, will not fear though the earth 
be removed and the mountains cast into 
the midst of the sea." Faith will not fear. 
Hope will look up and lift the head. If 
now they abide, then also may they abide; 



ZEbe Xtgbt ct Jfaitb 29 

yet neither now nor then, except in com- 
pany with Love. Faith surmounts fear. 
Hope overbalances fear. Love casts out 
fear. 

Faith and Hope look beyond the " little 
moment, until the indignation be over- 
past,*' and contemplate the final consum- 
mation. 

Light above light, and bliss beyond bliss, 

Whom words cannot utter, lo. Who is this ? 

As a King with many crowns He stands, 

And our names are graven on His hands; 

As a Priest, with God-uplifted eyes. 

He offers for us His Sacrifice; 

As the Lamb of God for sinners slain, 

That we too may live He lives again; 

As our Champion behold Him stand, 

Strong to save us, at God's right hand. 

►I- 

Unison is faultless, harmony is perfect. 

On earth the possibility of harmony entails 

the corresponding possibility of discord. 

Yet even on earth, whoever chooses and 

has faith can keep himself in time and 

tune, which will be an apt prelude for 

keeping time and tune in heaven. 



30 IReflectcJ) XtGbt0 

Tune me, O Lord, into one harmony 
With Thee, one full, responsive, vibrant 
chord ; 
Unto Thy praise, all love and melody. 
Tune me, O Lord. 

*' Faith is the substance of things hoped 
for^ the evidence of things not seen, * ' 

Whatso it be, howso it be. Amen. 

Blessed it is, believing, not to see: 
Now, God knows all that is, and we shall, 
then, 

Whatso it be. 



/ 



THE LIGHT OF HOPE 

O PASSING Angel, speed me with a song, 
A melody of heaven to reach my heart, 
And rouse me to the race and make me 
strong! 



31 



To stint patience stints hope at one re- 
move. Patience is irksome, experience 
tedious; but then without hope, which is 
their result, life were a living death. 

Experience bows a sweet, contented face. 
Still setting to her seal that God is true: 
Beneath the sun, she knows, is nothing 
new. 
All things that go return with measured 

pace, — 
Winds, rivers, man's still recommencing 
race ; — 
While Hope beyond earth's circle strains 

her view, 
Past sun and moon and rain, and rain- 
bow too. 
Enamored of unseen, eternal grace. 
Experience saith: ** My God doth all 
things well,** 
And for the morrow taketh little care, 
Such peace and patience garrison her 
soul; 

3 

33 



34 IReflecteD Xlgbte 

While Hope, who never yet hath 
touched the goal, 
With arms flung forth and backward 
floating hair, 
Touches, embraces, hugs the invisible. 

Nothing but the love of God can justify 
an indomitable hope. 

As froth on the face of the deep, 

As foam on the crest of the sea^ 
As dreams at the waking of sleep. 

As gourd of a day and a night. 
As harvest that no man shall reap. 

As vintage that never shall be. 
Is hope if it cling not aright 

O my God, unto Thee. 

. . . Hope, like the rainbow, can be 
evoked out of clouds and gloom to supply 
a bridge between earth and heaven, but 
can only be evoked by the sun-like love of 
God. 

Who looks on Thee looks full on his de- 
sire; 
Who looks on Thee looks full on Very 
Love; 




Hope, . . . with arms flung forth and backward floating hair." 

—Page 34. 



XLbc Xigbt of Ibope 35 

Looking he answers well, ** What lack 
I yet?'' 
His heat and cold wait not on earthly fire, 
His wealth is not on earth to lose or 
get,— 
Earth reels, but he has stored his store 
above. 



** Looking for that blessed hope^ and the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ, ' * 

. . . Lord God, in whom our trust 
and peace. 
Our love and our desire grow bright with 

hope, 
Lift us above this transitory scope 
Of earth, these pleasures that begin and 

cease, 
This moon which wanes, these seasons 
which decrease: 
We turn to Thee, as on an eastern slope 
Wheat feels the dawn beneath night's 
lingering scope. 
Bending and stretching sunward ere it sees. 



36 IRetlecteD Xf^bts 

If we hope for that we see not, then do 
we with patience wait for it. 

That which I chose, I choose; 

That which I willed, I will ; 
That which I once refused, I still refuse, — 

O hope deferred, be still! 

That which I chose and choose 

And will is Jesu's will: 
He hath not lost his life who seemed to 
lose, — 

O hope deferred, hope still. 



Earth is a race-course, not a goal. In- 
stead of mansions she pitches tents. Her 
nearest approach to a permanent abode is 
the grave. 

Hail, garden of confident hope! 
Where sweet seeds are quickening in 
darkness and cold: 
For how sweet and how young will 
they be 
When they pierce through the mould. 
Balm, woodbine, and heliotrope, 



Zbc Xtgbt ot 1bope 37 

There watch and there wait out of sight 

for their Sun ; 
While the Sun which they see not 

doth see 
Each and all one by one. 

^' Behold^ I make all things new.'' — Yet 
to each of us be Thou the same, and be 
each soul to Thee the same. 

New creatures; the Creator still the same 
For ever and for ever; therefore we 
Win hope from God's unsearchable de- 
cree, 
And glorify His still unchanging Name. 
We too are still the same; and still our 
claim, 
Our trust, our stay, is Jesus, none but 
He. 

What is good must often be given up in 
favor of something better. Who would 
perpetuate blossom and forego fruit ? 

Bury Hope out of sight, 
No book for it and no bell; 



38 TReflecteD ligbts 

It never could bear the light 

Even while growing and well; 
Think now if it could bear 
The light on its face of care, 
And grey scattered hair. . . . 

No grave for Hope in the earth, 
But deep in that silent soul 

Which rang no bell for its birth, 
And rings no funeral toll. 

Cover its once bright head; 

Nor odours nor tears be shed: 

It lived once, it is dead. . . . 

Shall many wail it ? Not so. 

Shall one bewail it ? Not one. 
Thus it hath been from long ago. 

Thus it shall be 'neath the sun. 
O fleet sun, make haste to flee! 
O rivers, fill up the sea! 
O Death, set the dying free ! 

The sun nor loiters nor speeds ; 

The rivers run as they ran, 
Through clouds or through windy reeds 

All run as when all began. 
Only Death turns at our cries; — 



^be ILtgbt ot l)ope 39 

Lo, the Hope we buried with sighs 
Alive in Death's eyes! 

We dwell upon terrors of judgment, let 
us also dwell upon its hopes. It will have 
a great sound of a trumpet, and the 
trumpet-blast is music. It will be with 
clouds, and God Almighty has set His bow 
in the cloud. It will bring to sight angels. 
It will bring back saints, the particular 
saints we, having loved and lost, long for. 

Yet, after all, these are but minor hopes. 
It will bring back Christ, our supreme 
Hope, or else our supreme Fear. But the 
hope is in Him, the fear is in ourselves. 

From ourselves and from our fear. Good 
Lord, deliver us. 

Hope is the counterpoise of fear 
While night enthrals us here. 

Fear hath a startled eye that holds a tear: 
Hope hath an upward glance, for dawn 

draws near 
With sunshine and with cheer. 
Fear, gazing earthwards, spies a bier; 



40 IRetlecte^ ILlgbte 

And sets herself to rear 

A lamentable tomb where leaves drop 

sere . . . 
Hope chants a funeral hymn so sweet and 

clear 
He seems true chanticleer 
Of resurrection and of all things dear 
In the oncoming, endless year. 

Fear ballasts hope, hope buoys up fear — 
And both befit us here. 

* * // is good thai a 7nan should both hope 
and quietly wait for the salvation of the 
Lord, 



y y 



A life of hope deferred too often is 

A life of wasted opportunities, 

Yet hope is but the flower and not the root: 

And hope is still the flower and not the 

fruit : — 
Arise and sow and weed, a day shall come 
When also thou shalt keep thy Harvest 

Home. 

*' Ve shall receive a crown of glory,'' — 
We may hope to see in celestial crowns 



XLbc Xtgbt ot 1bope 41 

every possible adornment of all possible 
crowns — gracefulness of leaves, loveliness 
of flowers, endearment (if I may call it so) 
of tendrils, permanence of gold, lustre and 
tint of jewels. Meanwhile, because our 
dear Lord — flower of humankind and 
comparable with fine gold (although fine 
gold sufliceth not to compare with Him — 
was contented on earth to be crowned with 
a crown of thorns, let us be patient, con- 
tented, thankful, to wait on in hopes of a 
crown of glory. 

Lord, grant us grace to rest upon Thy 
Word, 
To rest in hope until we see Thy face; 
To rest through toil untroubled and un- 
stirred, 

Lord, grant us grace. 

Ah, songs which flesh and blood have 
never heard. 
And cannot hear, songs of the silent 
place 
Where rest remains! Lord, slake our hope 
deferred, 

Lord, grant us grace. 



42 IReflecte^ Xtgbts 

My God, Who hast revealed to us Hope 
as a most opportune grace, endow us with 
it as our own anchor of the soul, sure and 
steadfast. Keep us by holy hope from pre- 
sumption as it were a waterspout, and from 
despair as it were a quicksand, that we 
wreck not ourselves by the one or in the 
other! 



THE LIGHT OF PATIENCE 

Patience wears no crown, but acts as a 
crown to her fellow virtues. 

'' Fill high and deep! ''—'' But how ? 

The goblets all are broken. '*^ — 
** Nay, then, have patience now; 

For this is but a token 
We soon shall have no need 

Of such to cheer us ; 
The palm-branches decreed 
And crowns to be our meed 

Are very near us. ' ' 



43 



Holy Scripture bids us run with patience 
the race that is set before us. One might 
have anticipated that energy or zeal would 
be the word; but no, it is patience. Our 
race is for life or death, yet must it be run 
peacefully. 

Patience is its own reward. It preoccu- 
pies the soul with a sort of satisfaction 
which suppresses insatiable craving, vain 
endeavour, rebellious desire. It keeps the 
will steadfast, the mind disengaged, the 
heart quiet. 

Patience, having little or nothing, yet 
possesses all things; for through faith and 
patience the elect inherit the promises. 
. . . Draw freely, generously, hope- 
fully, upon patience; for the more we draw 
upon it, so much is the strain upon it 
lessened. 

O Lord, fulfill Thy will. 

Be the days few or many, good or ill; 

45 



46 IRetlecteD %iQbt6 

Prolong them, to suffice 

For offering up ourselves Thy sacrifice; 

Shorten them if Thou wilt, 

To make in righteousness an end of guilt. 

Yea, they will not be long 

To souls who learn to sing a patient song; 

Yea, short they will not be 

To souls on tiptoe to flee home to Thee. 

O Lord, fulfil Thy will ; 

Make Thy will ours, and keep us patient 

still, 
Be the days few or many, good or ill. 

Patience is a grace, but is it also a privi- 
lege ? 

Yes, surely. The patient soul, lord of 
itself, sits imperturbable amid the jars of 
life, and serene under its frets. '* Zef 
patience have her perfect work^ that ye may 
be perfect and entire^ wanting nothing,'' 
Hence we may infer that where patience 
is perfect, nought else will remain im- 
perfect. 

Grant us, O Lord, that patience and that 
faith — 
Faith's patience imperturbable in Thee, 



XLbc Xlgbt ot patience 47 

Hope's patience till the long-drawn 
shadows flee, 
Love's patience unresentful of all scathe. 
Verily we need patience breath by breath, — 
Patience while Faith holds up her glass 

to see, 
While Hope toils yoked in Fear's co- 
partnery, 
And Love goes softly on the way to death. 
How gracious and how perfecting a grace 
Must patience be on which those others 
wait ! — 
Faith with suspended rapture in her face, 
Hope firm and careful, hand in hand 
with Fear, 
Love — ah, good Love, who would not 
antedate 
God's will, but saith: Good is it to be 
here. 

Patience goes with sorrow, not with joy. 
And by a natural instinct sorrow ranges 
itself with darkness, not with light. But 
eyes that have been supernaturalized 
recognize, not literally only but likewise 
in a figure, how darkness reveals more 



48 IRetlecteD Xlgbta 

luminaries than does the day; — to the day- 
appertains a single sun, to the night in- 
numerable, incalculable, by man's per- 
ception inexhaustible stars. This is one 
of nature's revelations, attested by ex- 
perience. God grant us to receive the 
parallel revelation of grace: then whatever 
befalls us will by His blessing work in us 
patience, and our patience will work in us 
experience, and our experience hope. 

Moreover, we must not so dwell on our 
sore need of patience as to overlook faith, 
or still worse to overlook love. 

Patience must dwell with Love, for Love 
and Sorrow 
Have pitched their tent together here; 
Love all alone will build a house to- 
morrow. 
And Sorrow not be near. 

To-day for Love's sake hope, still hope in 
Sorrow, 
Rest in her shade and hold her dear; 
To-day she nurses thee; and lo! to- 
morrow 
Love only will be near. 




IT) 



u 

03 



*-> 

V 

V 
t/i 

V 

c 

lU 
V 

o 



Zbc %iQbt ot patience 49 

** Thorns and thistles shall it brifig forth 
unto thee.'' — Let the *' it " in question be 
my allotment, my field, my garden. . . . 
Thorns should stir up my faith to look up 
to Him whom all men pierced. Thistles 
should teach me to exercise patience; it 
will tax patience to weed out what can be 
extirpated, it will strain patience to put up 
with the remainder. 

And lo! the lot is fallen unto me in a 
fair ground; faith is cheaply bought by 
many a thorn-wound, and patience by 
many a thistle-prick. 

Nerve us with patience, Lord, to toil or 
rest, 
Toiling at rest on our allotted level, 
Unsnared, unscarred by world or flesh 
or devil. 
Fulfilling the good will of Thy behest; 
Not careful here to hoard, not here to 
revel, 
But waiting for our pleasure and our zest 
Beyond the fading splendor of the west. 
Beyond this death-struck life and death- 
lier evil- 



50 IReflccteD %iQbtB 

It needs profound patience, patience 
born of love, and sustained by love, to 
achieve final perseverance. 

It seems an easy thing, 
Mayhap, one day to sing, 
Yet the next day 
We cannot sing nor say. 

Keep silence with good heart 
While silence fits our part; 
Another day 
We shall both sing and say. 

Keep silence, counting time 
To strike in at the time: 
Prepare to sound. 
Our part is coming round ! 

Cannot we sing or say ? 
In silence let us pray, 
And meditate 
Our love-song while we wait. 

Obedience is the fruit of faith ; patience, 
the bloom on the fruit. 



Sbe XtQbt ot patience 51 

** There remaineth therefore a rest to the 
people of GodJ*^ 

Sweetness of rest when Thou sheddest rest, 

Sweetness of patience till then, — 
Only the will of God is best 

For all the millions of men ; 
For all the millions on earth to-day. 

On earth and under the earth. 
Waiting for earth to vanish away, 

Waiting to come to the birth. 

The ** all-glorious within " can afford to 
wait patiently for clothing of '* wrought 
gold." 

By grace we may dwell loftily below 
while we await the call to go up higher. 

What is most irritating teaches patience, 
if we will be taught. 

Therefore in patience I possess my soul. 
Yea, therefore as a flint I set my face, 

To pluck down, to build up again the 
whole, — 
But in a distant place. 



52 IRetlecteO Xt^bta 

These thorns are sharp, yet I can tread on 
them; 
This cup is loathsome, yet He makes it 
sweet; 
My face is steadfast towards Jerusalem, 
My heart remembers it. . . . 

Although to-day I walk in tedious ways, 
To-day His staff is turned into a rod. 

Yet will I wait for Him the appointed days 
And stay upon my God. 

Patience it is that worketh experience: 
no wonder that a vast amount of human 
experience is limited! 

* * Hold fast that which thou hast^ that no 
ifian take thy crown.'' — Hold fast for one 
thing the word of Christ's patience. To 
let go patience would entail forfeit of both 
praise and promise. 

That which as yet *' thou hast '' is not 
thy crown, but on it depends thy crown. 

Every course of life, at any level, affords 
scope for patience; let us not despond as 



a:bc %iQbt ot patience 53 

if destined to stick fast in patience and 
there come to an end; the fault is mine if 
my patience shoot not up into experience, 
or if my experience bud and blossom not 
into hope. 



THE LIGHT OF HUMILITY 

* * Before honor is humility, ' ' 

Where Humility lays deep the low-lying 
foundation, the superincumbent structure 
can safely and permanently tower aloft 
unto heaven. 



55 



Graces are the safest gifts to rejoice in: 
yet even as to graces joy has a dangerous 
side. It might seem safe for the humble 
to rejoice in humility; but then, the hum- 
ble soul, discerning defect where others 
observe excellence, is of all men slow to 
exult over his own gifts. 

It is safer to rejoice in the Giver than 
the gift. 

Give me the lowest place ; not that I dare 
Ask for that lowest place, but Thou hast 
died 

That I might live and share 
Thy glory by Thy side. 

Give me the lowest place ; or if for me 
That lowest place too high, make one 
more low. 

Where I may sit and see 
My God, and love Thee so. 

How safe it is for me to be set low on a 
lowly level and one bounded by a misty ho- 

57 



58 IReflecteD %igbte 

rizon, so that thence I can explore neither 
depth nor distance to any great extent! 

As violets so be I recluse and sweet, 
Cheerful as daisies unaccounted rare, 

Still sunward gazing from a lowly seat, 
Still sweetening wintry air. 

While half-awakened Spring lags incom- 
plete, 
While lofty forest-trees tower bleak and 
bare, 
Daisies and violets own remotest heat. 
And bloom and make them fair. 

To sit on thrones is an exaltation, to 
wear crowns a dignity. To fall prostrate 
in worship is a loftier exaltation, to cast 
down tributary crowns an enhanced dig- 
nity. Blessed it is to receive, still more 
blessed to give. 

Once I thought to sit so high 
In the palace of the sky! 
Now I thank God for His grace 
If I may fill the lowest place. 

Once I thought to scale so soon 
Heights above the changing moon ; 



Zbc Xt^bt of Ibumilit^ 59 

Now I thank God for delay, 
To-day — it yet is called to-day. 

Equality tends to humble pride: proud 
humility may plant itself in the lowest 
place; only humble humility can revel and 
rejoice in sitting altogether undistinguished 
among peers. 

Content to come, content to go, 
Content to wrestle or to race, 
Content to know or not to know. 
Each in his place; 

Lord, grant us grace to love Thee so. 
That glad of heart and glad of face. 
At last we may sit high or low. 
Each in his place, 

Where pleasures flow as rivers flow. 
And loss has left no barren trace, 
And all that are, are perfect so, 
Each in his place. 

* * Many that are first shall he last, ' ' — For 
the present, meanwhile, every one occupies 
his own level, and on that particular level 
occurs his personal temptation. It is 



6o IReflectet) %iQbtB 

easier, often, to stoop low than to stoop 
slightly: in the former case all see and 
acknowledge the condescension; in the 
latter many may not admit that there is any 
condescension at all. 

' * Mind not high things. ' ' — Since at the 
day of final reckoning insignificance will 
not screen the small, or importance exempt 
the great, or gold ransom the rich, or 
penury excuse the poor, or liberty furnish 
an escape to the free, or chains exonerate 
the bond, — since all these will clearly count 
as nothing then, not as chaff on the wind, 
not as dust in the balance, — from now 
appraising mole-hills as mountains, Good 
Lord, deliver us! 

Lord, I am feeble and of mean account, 
Thou who dost condescend as well as 

mount. 
Stoop Thou Thyself to me, 
And grant me grace to hear and grace to 

see. 

Lord, if Thou grant me grace to hear and 

see 
Thy very Self who stoopest thus to me, 



XLbc Xl^bt ot 1bumtliti2 6i 

I make but slight account 

Of aught beside whereby to sink or mount. 

** / am the least in ??iy fathers housed 

The least, if so I am, 

If so, less than the least, — 
May I reach heaven to glorify the Lamb, 

And sit down at the feast. 

I fear, and I am small, 

Whence I am of good cheer; 
For I who hear Thee call, have heard Thee 
call 

To Thee the small who fear. 

What is most overbearing teaches hu- 
mility, if we will learn. 

Not to be first: how hard to learn 
That lifelong lesson of the past; 

Line graven on line and stroke on stroke. 
But, thank God, learned at last! 

So now in patience I possess 
My soul year after tedious year, 



62 iReflecteD Xtabte 

Content to take the lowest place — 
The place assigned me here. 

Yet sometimes, when I feel my strength 
Most weak, and life most burdensome, 

I lift mine eyes up to the hills 

From whence my help shall come: 

Yea, sometimes still I lift my heart 
To the archangelic trumpet-burst, 

When all deep secrets shall be shown, 
And many last be first. 

Lord, bring me low: 
For Thou wert lowly in Thy blessed heart: 
Lord, keep me so. 

Grant us grace to ascend to heaven by 
that way of humility whereby Thou de- 
scendedst. 

To descend penitently into the valley of 
humiliation, to descend obediently and 
with good courage into the valley of the 
shadow of death, is to ascend the hill of 
the Lord. To excavate the foundation 
forwards the erection of the temple. 




Thus pondering, I glanced downward on the grass." — Page 148. 



THE LIGHT OF OBEDIENCE 



Obedience is the key of knowledge. 



63 



Holy fear incites faith to humility, hope 
to prudence, love to obedience. Faith 
without humility presumes, hope without 
prudence misleads, love without obedience 
— there is no genuine love without obedi- 



ence ! 



Fear hath least grace, but great expe- 
diency; 
Faith and humility show grave and 
strong; 
Prudence and hope mount equally; 

Obedience marches marshalling their 
throng, — 
Goes first, goes last, to left hand or to 
right ; 
And all the six uplift a pilgrim's song; 
By day they rest not, nor they rest by night, 
While Love within them, with them, 
over them, 
Weans them and woos them from the dark 
to light. 

65 



66 TReflecteD %ight6 

Words are chaff; obedience is grain. I 
must beware of polished corners which 
form no part of the sole Temple, of fair- 
seeming superstructures which are not 
founded upon the one only Rock; of 
spiritualism which is not spirituality; of 
indifferentism to truth simulating charity; 

of charity degraded to an investment. 

+ 

It is well to fear and obey; it is ill to 

fear instead of obeying. 

A further beatitude comforts us in those 
Divine words of promise: ''If any man 
will do His will^ he shall know of the doc- 
trine^ whether it be of God,'' For by im- 
plication they take account of doubt and 
ignorance as being no bar to obedience, 
and therefore as being no irremovable bar 
to knowledge. 

Obedience they enjoin upon us at once; 
all else may stand over. 

Now many have said, and for the time 
being have said honestly, ** I do not 
know *'; or even, *' I cannot believe." 

But who ever said honestly, ' ' I cannot 
obey '' ? 



XLbc Xtfibt ot ©beDlence 67 

Obey to the limit of knowledge, and 
in all probability obedience will extend 
knowledge. 

** In the cup which she hath filled fill 
to her double, ' ' — Obstinate disobedience 
sifted, meted, weighed, is the unerring 
measure of that vengeance which God 
measures to it. 

Utmost obedience is no measure of that 
blessing which God measures to it. 

Obedience is the key of knowledge. 
That was a master-stroke of guile by which 
the serpent cajoled Eve into believing dis- 
obedience to be the key of knowledge. 
For that which disobedience teaches us is 
false, either in its essence or in its aspect 
as regards ourselves. 

Wherefore since disobedience unlocks 
not truth, whatsoever it unlocks is thereby 
certified as falsity. 

For each key fits its own lock and no 
other. 

When amid the luminous obscurity of 
prophecy insight fails, obedience remains. 



68 IReflecteD Xigbta 

Though knowledge fail, and sight be dim, 

And way and end not understood, 
Though life be masked with doubt's gray 

film, 
Obedience is good. 

We might all sit down contented and 
complacent in ignorance, if only ignorant 
of our ignorance. If the Tree of Knowl- 
edge had been planted anywhere except 
in Eden, Eve might contentedly have 
obeyed through ignorance; but what was 
demanded of her was to obey of set pur- 
pose. What was demanded of her is what 
still is demanded of us. 



THE LIGHT OF WISDOM 

To be in one mind with God is universal 
knowledge in embryo. 



69 



''^ Be not wise in your own conceits,^' — 
Ignorance with humility can serve and 
please God: knowledge without humility 
cannot. Thus humble ignorance secures 
the essentials of wisdom, whilst unhumble 
knowledge is folly. 

Would humble knowledge not be better 
than humble ignorance ? 

Yes, if granted; no, if denied. 

Lord Jesus Christ, our Wisdom and our 
Rest, 
Who wisely dost reveal and wisely hide. 
Grant us such grace in wisdom to abide 
According to Thy w^ill whose will is best: 
Contented with Thine uttermost behest, 
Too sweet for envy and too high for 

pride, 
All simple-souled, dove-hearted, and 
dove-eyed. 
Soft-voiced, and satisfied in humble nest. 

71 



72 IReflecteD Xlgbte 

The subtlest and profoundest of men 
cannot explain mysteries ; the simplest 
person can appropriate and exult in them. 
A revealed, unexplained mystery is my 
Tree of Knowledge, accessible whilst for- 
bidden, — a theme for prayer, not a bait 
for curiosity. Ignorance by virtue of good 
will takes rank as a part of obedience. 

Childlike souls know much that they 
understand not; and what is required of 
them is not to understand but to know. 

Wisdom and love and rest — each holy soul 

Hath these to-day while day is only 

night; 

What shall souls have when morning 

brings to light 

Love, wisdom, rest, God's treasure 

stored above ? 

Palm shall they have and harp and aureole, 

Wisdom, rest, love — and lo, the whole 

is love! 

4- 

Whether any given knowledge will prove 

profitable or unprofitable is a question by 

itself, independent of any debate as to its 



XLbc TLl^bt of TimisDom 73 

authenticity. . . . Knowledge and 
wisdom are quite distinct, though not ne- 
cessarily sundered. Again: in the same 
sense that some see and yet see not, hear 
and yet hear not, so some may be said to 
know without knowing. . . . Unas- 
similated truth avails nothing. 

* ' And they rest not day and nighty sayings 
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, 
which was, and is, and is to come, ' ' — These 
celestial impersonations of knowledge ap- 
pear to have only one object of contempla- 
tion — God Almighty. Thus have they 
attained to all that they do know. That 
same school of cherubim is open to men, 
— is open to me. 

Love loveth Thee, and Wisdom loveth 
Thee; 
The love that loveth Thee sits satisfied: 
Wisdom that loveth Thee grows million- 
eyed. 
Learning what was, and is, and is to be. 
Wisdom and love are glad of all they see; 
Their heart is deep, their hope is not 
denied; 



74 IReflecteD ILigbte 

They rock at rest on time's unresting 
tide, 
And wait to rest through long eternity. 

Because Christ, being Wisdom, is the 
Word, and, being the Truth, is the Word, 
therefore Christians must speak words of 
wisdom and truth, or else must keep si- 
lence. Gifts become a curse and no bless- 
ing when divorced from graces. Imagine 
a gift of tongues without either wisdom or 
truth ! 

Lord, who knowest my foolishness, give 
me wisdom and truth in my heart, that out 
of the abundance of my heart my mouth 
may speak worthily. 

Grant us such grace that we may work 
Thy will. 
And speak Thy words and walk before 
Thy face. 
Profound and calm like waters deep and 
still ; 
Grant us such grace. 

Lord, pardon and amend us whenever 
we doubt, misunderstand, misstate. Suffer 




" One sorrow more." — Page i6o. 



XLbc %iQbt ot TraiieDom 75 

us not to go astray. Suffer us not to mis- 
lead each other. Make us, I beseech Thee, 
so one with Thyself, that cleaving unto 
Thee we may accept all truth though we 
cannot express it, and be replenished with 
wisdom however scant our knowledge, and 
speak gracious words, or keep gracious 
silence in our daily walk with Thee and 
with one another. Amen. 

Neither knowledge nor ignorance is of 
first importance to Bible students: grace is 
our paramount need, — Divine grace rather 
than any human gift. Acquirements and 
deficiencies sink to one dead level when 
lacking grace. 

The Bible is open to all, — not so the 
Book of Life. The Bible, then, is what 
man needs at present, however curiosity 
may hanker after the other. Profit now 
by the Bible, and hereafter the Book of 
Life will not be closed to thee. The 
Bible is well worth prolonged study, and 
the Book of Life of prolonged expectation. 
And already in the Bible man holds the 
key to the Book of Life. 



76 IReflecteD Xlgbts 

Ignorance is often a safeguard and a 
privilege. It is better to avoid doubts 
than to reject them. To study a difficulty 
is often to incur one. 

I must beware lest my own curiosity be 
morbid, perverse, unbridled. To-day the 
monstrous may be simply abnormal; to- 
morrow it may be ** the mystery of ini- 
quity." 

If ignorance breed humility, it will not 
debar from wisdom. If ignorance betake 
itself to prayer, it will lay hold on grace. 

From knowledge that is foolishness. 
Good Lord, deliver us. 

From ignorance that is blindness, Good 
Lord, deliver us. 

4^ 

Evil knowledge need not harm us whilst 
it is involuntary, but to court it without 
justifying cause is to court death, as Eve 
courted death by by-path of knowledge. 
. . . It becomes a matter of conscience 
what poems and novels to read. 

What ! has sin never a lofty, heroic side ? 

Never the sin, though sometimes the 
sinner. The sinner may a while exhibit 



XLbc %iQM ot MleDom 77 

traces of that lofty heroism which nature 
richly bestows and grace can transfigure to 
sanctity; but such birthright nobility when 
divorced from God can no more endure 
than a severed vine-branch can maintain 
its luxuriance. 

As to gaze down a precipice seems to 
fascinate the spectator towards a shattering 
fall, so is it spiritually dangerous to gaze 
on excessive wickedness, lest its immeasur- 
able scale should fascinate us as if it were 
colossal without being monstrous. 

To gaze at sin for any purpose except 
learning to avoid it, has a dangerous side. 
It was the serpent fascinated Eve when 
they met face to face, not Eve the serpent. 

It is wiser to remain ignorant than to 
learn evil. Evil knowledge acquired in 
one evil moment of curiosity may harass 
and haunt us to the end of our time. 

And how after the end of our time ? 

Ah, Lord, Lord, if my heart were right 
with Thine, 
As Thine with mine, then should I rest 
resigned, 



78 IReflectet) %iQbtB 

Awaiting knowledge with a quiet mind 
Because of heavenly wisdom's anodyne. 
Then would Thy love be more to me 
than wine, 
Then should I seek, being sure at length 
to find. 

' * T/ie foolish said unto the wise . . . 
Our lamps are gone out, * * 

From lamps going out, gone out; from 
any light that shineth not to the glory of 
the Heavenly Father, . . . 

From earthly gain which is heavenly loss, 

Deliver us, deliver all men, good Lord. 



THE LIGHT OF ENCOURAGE- 
MENT 

Everything may have a bright side; 
everything may be a vehicle or a channel 
of good, or an imperfect form of good, or 
good excessive, — except sin. Thus pain, 
suffering, privation, death, may be good 
producers. 



79 



** A merry heart is a continual feast '^ : 
Then take we life and all things in good 
part; 
To fast grows festive while we keep at least 
A merry heart. 

Well pleased with nature and well pleased 
with art, 
A merry heart makes cheer for man and 
beast, 
And fancies music in a creaking cart. 

Some day, a restful heart whose toils have 
ceased, 
A heavenly heart gone home from earthly 
mart: — 
To-day, blow wind from west or east, 
A merry heart. 

4- 



i < 



T/ie city had no need of the stm, neither 
of the moo7i^ to shine in it.'' — Whilst man 
needs sun and moon, he has them; so long 

6 8l 



82 IReflecteD Xigbta 

as he needs them he will have them. This 
is a sample of the providential bounty 
lavished upon him without stint or failure, 
— an antidote for his cares and fears, a 
reassurance of his hope. ' ' Your Father 
knoweth what things ye have need of^ before 
ye ask Him, ' ' 

A lamtern may be so placed as to hide its 
light. But alas ! such withholding amounts 
not to neutrality, but to evil influence; the 
lantern which does not cast light casts 
shadow. 

On the other hand and for our encour- 
agement, good influence may be at work 
where the result may not be traceable on 
earth or in time, but only in heaven and 
throughout eternity. I have read of a 
date-palm which lived a long time green 
but barren. One year without apparent 
cause it bore fruit. Wherefore ? Because 
out of sight a kindred palm had come to 
shed its fructifying pollen, and this the 
wind bore to impregnate the barren tree. 

Is it worth while to live, 
Rejoice and grieve, 



XTbe 3tt0bt of Encouragement 83 

Hope, fear, and die ? 

Man with man, truth with lie ? 

Is it worth while to live ? — 

Be of good cheer; 

Love casts out fear: 
Rise up, achieve. 

'' Seek, and ye shall find,'' — The mer- 
chantman who found the pearl of great 
price was one who sought for goodly pearls ; 
not one who never sought at all. 

** Be of good courage, and He shall 
strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in 
the Lord, * ' 

I, being weak and timid, would fain 
serve God without great terrors or tortures; 
but I comprehend that among His most 
noble and ardent lovers some are so rapt 
out of themselves in Jesus Christ that ter- 
rors appal them not, nor tortures abate 
their spirit. God is good in their height 
and in my lowness, accepting the one and 
not having rejected the other. 



84 IReflecteD Xl^bts 

As flames that consume the mountains, 
as winds that coerce the sea, 
Thy men of renown show forth Thy 
might in the clutch of death; 
Down they go into silence, yet the trump 
of the Jubilee 
Swells not Thy praise as swells it the 
breathless pause of their breath. 

What is the flame of their fire, if so I may 
catch the flame? 
What the strength of their strength, if 
also I may wax strong ? 
The flaming fire of their strength is the 
love of Jesu's Name, 
In whom their death is life, their silence 
utters a song. 

' * The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. ' ' — 
This Call which cries ' ' Come, ' ' and ad- 
dresses ''whosoever will," is a call to 
refreshment, solace, overflowing plenty, 
boundless, endless supply, sustenance of 
immortality. A call without stint, without 
bar. 

Yet some Christians traverse the world 



XLbc Xlgbt ot Encouragement 85 

like walking funerals rather than like 
wedding-guests! 

" Thou hast a little strength." 

*'Why not much strength?" — ''God 
knoweth." 

** Were it not better to have more ? "— 
** Not while God assigns no more." 

** With much, much could be done." — 
** With little, all can be done." 

** Give much, and I will glorify the 
Giver." — '' Given much while disdaining 
little, and thou wouldst glorify thyself or 
Satan." 

*' O wretched man that I am! " — '* Pray 
God to mend thee, and He will mend all 
else for thee." 

" Yet fain would I, like an angel, excel 
in strength." — *' Safer for thee, like St. 
Paul, in weakness to be strong." 

In proportion to man*s peril is God's 
succor. 

** The fields are white to harvest, look 
and see. 



86 iReflecteJ) %\QbtB 

Are white abundantly; 

The full-orbed harvest moon shines clear, 

Be of good cheer." 

** Ah, woe is me! 
I have no heart for harvest time. 
Grown sick with hope deferred from chime 
to chime." 

** But Christ can give thee heart who 

loveth thee. 
Can set thee in the eternal ecstasy 
Of His great jubilee. . . 
Who knocketh at His door 
He welcomes evermore. 
Kneel down before 
That open door 
(The time is short), and smite 
Thy breast, and pray with all thy might.'* 



I ( 



What shall I say ? " 



** Nay, pray. 
Though one but say * Thy will be done,' 
He hath not lost his day 
At set of sun." 



Zbc %iQbt of ^encouragement 87 

What real connection is there between 
stars and night more than between stars 
and day ? Earth's shadows approach them 
not in their high places ; nor, so far as we 
can trace, affect them in any way, or do 
aught in their regard beyond revealing 
them to mortal ken. Our perception 
varies, not their lustre. 

" T/ie desert shall rejoice and blossom as 
the rose,'' — Any wilderness whither God 
sends His beloved is sure to turn out a 
place of safety and of food convenient, if 
not of flowers. And were it possible for 
one single soul to take up its abode in 
Heaven against the Divine will, Heaven 
itself would be found thenceforward a 
stronghold, not of peace but of unrest. 
There is no peace outside the peace of 
God. 

Great is their grace who, instead of 
choosing their offering, simply offer what 
they have; as Jacob of old in extremity of 
danger took of that which came to his 
hand for a present. 



88 IReflecteD Xigbte 

** Lord, what have I that I may offer Thee? 
Look, Lord, I pray Thee, look and see." 

'* What is it thou hast got ? — 

Nay, child, what is it thou hast not ? 

Thou hast all gifts that I have given thee: 

Offer them all to Me, 

The great ones and the small, — 

I will accept them all. 

I crave not thine, but thee." 



** Ah, Lord, Who lovest me. 
Such as I have now give I Thee." 

** Faithful unto death,'' — We often think 
of it as if it must demand a long as well as 
an unflinching effort ; and so indeed it may 
demand, but we know not whether it will. 
One moment may suffice, for aught that 
we know to the contrary. One moment's 
effort: the weakest might undertake so 
much! 

Or if ever so long a strain be required, 
God's strength is always stronger than 
strong enough. 




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Zbc %iQbt ot jEncouraaement 89 



* * In the7n is filled up the wrath of God, ' * 
— The wrath of God admits of being filled 
up; nowhere do we read of His mercy 
being filled up. 

Seven vials hold Thy wrath, but what can 
hold 
Thy mercy save Thine own infinitude, 
Boundlessly overflowing with all good, 

All loving-kindness, all delights untold ? 

* * I came not to send peace ^ but a sword, ' ' — 
Yet a sword of Christ's sending brings 
peace when welcomed for His sake, and 
faced in His strength. Or even though 
the sword be Satan's sword, yet to our- 
selves it will be the sword of the Lord if 
whilst being slain we trust in Him. 

If all things really do work together for 
good to them that love God, then amongst 
** all things " cannot but be included ac- 
cidents and losses: whence to fret over 
such must be either to quarrel with a bless- 
ing, or to pass sentence on ourselves as not 
entitled to it. 



go IRetlecteD li^bts 

* * That ye^ being rooted and grounded in 
hope, may know the love of Christ which 
passeth knowledge. ' ' 






Can I know it?'' '* Nay." 
Shall I know it ? " *' Yea, 

When all mists have cleared away 

For ever and for aye/' 

*' Why not then to-day ? " 
' ' Who hath said thee nay ? 
Lift a hopeful heart and pray 
In a humble way. ' * 

•^ 

Privileges entail responsibilities: to be 
denied the privilege is to be spared the 
responsibility. 

Well may we thank God for our exemp- 
tions. 

' 'It is appointed unto men once to die j but 
after this the judgment,'^ 

So brief a life, and then an endless grief 

Or endless joy, — 
So brief a life, then ruin or relief, — 

What solace, what annoy 



Zbc %iQbt of Encouragement 91 

Of time needs dwelling on ? 

It is, it was, 
It is done 

While we sigh **Alas!" 

Yet saints are singing in a happy hope, 

Forecasting pleasure, — 
Bright eyes of faith enlarging all their 
scope: 

Saints love beyond time's measure. 
Where love is, there is bliss 

That will not pass; 
Where love is 

Dies away ' ' Alas ! ' * 

* * In everything give thanks. ' ' 

Give thanks to-day, and let to-morrow take 
Heed to itself; to-day imports thee 
more; 
To-morrow may not dawn like yester- 
day: 
Until that unknown morrow go thy way. 
Suffer and work and strive for Jesus' 
sake, — 
Who tells thee what to-morrow keeps in 
store ? 



92 IReflecteD Xtgbta 

Those who finally inherit all things guar- 
anteed to any soul, must while probation 
endured have had within themselves at 
least the germ of every grace everywhere 
developed. A surmise full of joy when 
the thralls of lifelong involuntary disad- 
vantages are in question: — ** Out of prison 
he Cometh to reign. ' ' 

A Christian hero whose ship was about 
to sink, encouraged his crew by pointing 
out that heaven is as near the sea as the 
land. Our assigned level is our nearest 
point to heaven. 

An overthrow which redounds to the 
glory of God is not defeat, but victory. 
Nor indeed is such an overthrow a genuine 
overthrow, any more than prostration is a 
fall, or self-sacrifice destruction. Bear 
witness, Gethsemane and Calvary! 

* * Resist the devil ^ and he will flee from 
you,'' — That tremendous endowment of 
Free-Will which can even say nay to God 



XLbc Xlgbt ot Encouragement 93 

Almighty, is able tenfold to say nay to the 
** strong man armed." Nothing outside 
myself can destroy me by main force and 
in my own despite. 

To press forward towards all the great 
things which may yet be ours, annuls the 
pang caused by lesser matters we have 
missed. It is so even as concerns glories 
terrestrial compared among themselves. 
How beyond all comparison does any com- 
parison appear when terrestrial glories are 
set against celestial! 

** T/ie day shone not for a third part of it^ 
and the night likewise.'" —Ono. third taken, 
two thirds left. Better to lose a third and 
be thankful, than to retain the whole and 
be thankless. It is sadly amiss never to 
perceive how much sunshine gilds our 
mortal day until that brightness is dimin- 
ished. 

A curtailed day is still a day, with day- 
light opportunities. 



LIGHT FOR LABOR 

The harvest-moon shines full and clear, 
The harvest-time is near, 
Be of good cheer. 
• • • • • 

Not wearied though the work be weari- 
some. 
Nor fainting though the time be almost 
past. 



95 



Each act of dutiful service, though for 
its performance the elect soul abases itself, 
yet raises the soul to a loftier level and 
augments its glory. . . . Indeed, 
neither ascent nor descent comes any 
longer into question when Christ is felt to 
be that true and only Centre to which all 
living life gravitates. 

Nothing on earth is a substitute for duty, 
be that duty what it may. Affliction can- 
not exempt us, nor great searchings of 
heart nor poverty. These are conditions 
under which to work; not workers in our 
stead. 

Lord, carry me. — Nay, but I grant thee 

strength 
To walk and work thy way to heaven at 
length. — 

Lord, I am tired. — He hath not much 

desired 

The goal, who at the starting-point is 

tired. ^ — 

7 97 



98 IReflecteD %igbts 

Lord, dost Thou care ? — Yea, for thy 

gain or loss 
So much I cared it brought Me to the 

Cross. — 

Lord, I believe; help Thou mine un- 
belief. — 
Good is the word ; but rise, for life is brief. 

Each duty, office, vocation, is God's 
gift whether to man or angel. Man in- 
dulges in choices, recoils, and preferences ; 
some gifts he styles trials, some, burdens. 
Angels seem to see and feel no differences 
between calling and calling, opportunity 
and opportunity. Angels doubtless esti- 
mate the gift by the Giver; men too often 
the Giver by the gift ; — not, that is, by the 
intrinsic value of the gift, but rather by 
their own taste or distaste for it. 

** I will give to every one of you according 
to your works.'' — What other standard 
would I crave than this of work ? for work 
is voluntary, within my own option to do 
or leave undone. 



%igbt for Xabor 99 

What I do, I will to do; what I leave 
undone, I will to leave undone. Who, 
then, is it that betrayeth me: Lord, is it I ? 
It is I. 

This world is not my orchard for fruit 
nor my garden for flowers. It is, however, 
my only field whence to raise a harvest. 

** But if my lot be sand, where nothing 
grows ? " 
Nay, who hath said it ? Tune a thank- 
ful psalm; 
For though thy desert bloom not as the 
rose. 
It yet can rear thy palm. 

^^ And there was given me a reed like unto 
a rod : and the angel stood^ saying : Rise^ 
and measure the temple of God.'' — A reed — 
the emblem of weakness — becomes conse- 
crated as the measure of what is holy. 
Christ accepts our weakness, not account- 
ing it as weakness, but associating it with 
His own holiness and strength. . . . 
When we shrink from the holiness of our 



100 IReflected Xl^bte 

calling, privileges, vocation, there is com- 
fort for us in the reed. For not the 
strength of iron, nor the indestructibility of 
gold, was employed for the measurement 
of the temple, but the frailty of the reed. 

Am I frailer than other reeds, verily a 
bruised reed ? Yet ''a bruised reed will He 
not break, * * 

Much good work has been hindered by 
such anxiety to do better as deters one 
from promptly doing one's best. When 
we so set our hearts on doing well that 
practically we do nothing, we are paralyzed 
not by humility, but by pride. If in such 
a temper we succeeded in making our light 
to shine, it would shine not in glorification 
of our Father, but of ourselves. 
Why then not begin ? 

** From pride and vain-glory. Good 
Lord, deliver us." 

Can anything be sadder than work left 
unfinished ? Yes ; work never begun. 
** Well begun is half done,*' says our Eng- 
lish proverb. True, the final verdict de- 
pends upon the ending; but neither good 



Xtgbt tor Xabor loi 

nor bad ending can ensue except from 
some manner of beginning. A bad begin- 
ning may be retrieved and a good ending 
achieved. No beginning, no ending. 

It is bad to work loiteringly; it may be 
worse to loiter instead of beginning to 
work at all. 

•^ 

Suppose our duty of the moment is to 
write: why do we not write ? 

Because we cannot summon anything 
original, or striking, or picturesque, or 
eloquent, or brilliant. 

But is a subject set before us ? 

It is. 

Is it true ? 

It is. 

Do we understand it ? 

Up to a certain point we do. 

Is it worthy of meditation ? 

Yes, and prayerfully. 

Is it worthy of exposition ? 

Yes, indeed. 

Why not then begin ? 

•i- 

At any rate, let us inquire what we pro- 



I02 IReflecteD Si^bte 

pose to do instead of grappling with that 
distasteful duty. Are we inclined to 
pray ? 

No, for that would end in our having to 
set about the evaded task. 

Or to praise and give thanks ? 

No, for we have not put on our armor, 
much less are we taking it off. 

Or to meditate ? 

No, for meditation would harp on the 
silenced string. 

What then ? 

Earth holds heaven in the bud; our 
perfection there has to be developed out 
of our imperfection here. Neither in 
heaven nor on earth, neither to-day nor 
to-morrow, neither by God nor by man, 
will grapes be gathered of thorns or figs of 
thistles. 

No slur attaches to any lawful condition 
or pursuit: what God hath made He is 
graciously willing to bear. A terrestrial 
crown may become the nucleus of a crown 
celestial. 




Sweet Spring must fail, and fail the choir of Spring, 

But wisdom shall burn on when the lesser lights are gone." 

—Page 144. 



\ 



Xl^bt tor Xabor 103 

Every variety of perversity is possible to 
free will. Some sinners work, and their 
work is their sin; others work not, and 
their sin consists in their not working. 
Yet not to work is in some sort to work 
amiss: ** He that gathereth not with Me 
scattereth. * ' 

How did Noah build his ark ? 

We may fairly assume that he built it 
openly, avowedly, without any subterfuges 
or pretences whatever. 

Now we Christians are (or ought to be) 
building arks ** to the saving of our souls." 
How many of us are building them in un- 
abashed openness and honesty, neither 
parading our religion nor keeping it under 
lock and key ? 

What we can do, do; what we cannot, 
trust God to do. 

Till one tries, it is easy to fancy one's 
self doing everything; when one tries, it 
is not difficult to despair of doing any- 
thing. Neither delusion will do us ultimate 
harm if we so let these extremes meet as to 



104 IRcflected Xlgbta 

curb, balance, counteract each other. Pre- 
sumption should at least fight lustily; de- 
spondency should at least pray earnestly. 
Genuine prayer in conjunction with genu- 
ine fighting must sooner or later overthrow 
presumption and dissipate despondency. 

Through burden and heat of the day, 

How weary the hands and the feet 
That labor with scarcely a stay 

Through burden and heat! 

Tired toiler, whose sleep shall be sweet, 
Kneel down, — it will rest thee to pray, — 

Then forward, for daylight is fleet: 
Cool shadows grow lengthening and gray, 

Cool twilight will soon be complete: — 
What matters this wearisome way 

Through burden and heat ? 

*' Their works do follow them,'' — The 
slothful servant desires to rest without 
labor; the good and faithful servant after 
labor. . . . But there is such a thing 
as unproductive labor, strenuously to be 
eschewed on pain of having no works at 
the critical moment. 



> 



%iQbt for !lLabor 105 

Fire must one day try every man's work, 
of what sort it is. 

''And unto one he gave ten talents^ to 
another two, and to another one,'' — The 
talents vouchsafed me I must use and im- 
prove thankfully ; the gifts withheld I must 
forego ungrudgingly and thankfully. 

Sloth may accompany a great many 
amiable tempers and skin-deep charms, 
but sloth runs no race. 

And a race is the one thing set before 
us. 

Too short a century of dreams, 

One day of work sufficient length, — 

Why should not you, why should not I 
Attain heroic strength t 

ft 

** And there fell , , . a great hail 

every stone about the weight of a 

talent y — Divine gifts are called by our 

Master '* talents." Every gift must turn 

to the recipient's impoverishment unless it 



io6 IRetlecteD Xiabte 

be so used as to secure the true riches; of 
goodly talents misused nothing will remain 
at last but the avenging weight. ** Every 
stone about the weight of a talent '' — of a 
talent I have done amiss with, or done 
nothing with ? God forbid. 

It is wise to obey in fear, foolish to fear 
to obey; wise to worship trembling, fool- 
ish to tremble instead of worshipping. A 
talent must neither be misused nor laid 
away unused. 

There awaits in every direction abun- 
dant good to be done, if only we have the 
will patiently to do it, first counting the 
cost. For, though no literal mountain 
obstruct our path, mountainous opposition 
may obstruct us; and if it please not God 
to remove it, then in His strength, weary 
and heart sore as we may be, we must sur- 
mount it, ** looking unto Jesus." 

It is over. What is over ?— 

Nay, how much is over truly! 
Harvest days we toiled to sow for; 



%XQbt tor Xabot 107 

Now the sheaves are gathered newly, 
Now the wheat is garnered duly. 

It suffices. What suffices ? — 
All suffices, reckoned rightly: 

Spring shall bloom where now the ice is, 
Roses make the bramble sightly, 
And the quickening sun shine brightly, 

And my garden teem with spices. 



LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH 

O Thou, the Life of living and of dead, 
Who givest more the more Thyself hast 
given, 
Suffice us as Thy saints Thou hast sufficed; 
That, beautified, replenished, comforted. 
Still gazing off from earth and up to 
heaven. 
We may pursue Thy steps, Lord Jesus 
Christ. 



109 



..^ 



' * There is no new thing under the sun, * ' — 
But sanctified human instinct sets its hope 
above the sun ; and while contentedly 
walking in the old paths of daily duty and 
discipline, knowing that for to-day the old 
is better, yet waits and hastens forward to 
be renewed and strengthened to sustain a 
new perfection. ' * New things do I de- 
clare : before they spring forth do I tell y oil 
of them.'' 

Up, my drowsing eyes ! 

Up, my sinking heart! 
Up to Jesus Christ arise! 

Claim your part 
In all raptures of the skies! 

Yet a little while, 

Yet a little way, 
Saints shall reap and rest and smile 

All the day : 
Up! let 's trudge another mile! 

Ill 



112 IReflecteD %iQbte 

It has been said that whatever may or 
may not constitute a good translation, it 
cannot consist in turning a good poem into 
a bad one. Christians need a searching 
self-sifting on this point. They translate 
God's law into the universal language of 
mankind; all sorts of men read them and 
in some sort cannot but read them. They 
too often resemble translations of the letter 
in defiance of the spirit; their good poem 
has become unpoetical. 

Our gifts, talents, opportunities, are a 
trust vested in us for the definite purpose 
of glorifying God, benefiting man, working 
out our own salvation. Ours are, — then 
mine are. 

Interruptions are vexatious. 

Granted : but what is an interruption ? 

An interruption is something, is any- 
thing, which breaks in upon our occupation 
of the moment. 

Now, our occupations spring ? — From 
within, for they are the outcome of our 
own will. 



Xigbt on tbc Bail^ ©atb 113 

And interruptions arrive ? — From with- 
out. Obviously from without, otherwise 
we should ward them off. 

Our occupation, then, is that which we 
select: our interruption is that which is 
sent us. 

But hence it would appear that the oc- 
cupation may be wilful, while the interrup- 
tion must be Providential. 

A startling view of occupations and in- 
terruptions! 

Ah, but that which is frivolous, selfish, 
idle, intrusive, is clearly not Providential. 

As regards the doer, no: as regards the 
sufferer, yes. 

* * / would thou wert either cold or hot, ' ' — 
If a merry heart is a continual feast, a 
lukewarm heart is a continual lack. Worse 
still; it is a centre of spiritual creeping 
paralysis: a hairbreadth less of live man 
to-day, a hairbreadth less to-morrow, 
until, unless the strong hand of Divine 
Grace should arrest decay, the dying man 
of so many days becomes the corpse of the 
ultimate morrow. 



114 IReflecteD %iQbt6 

O Lord, who extendedst mercy to him 
who, believing, craved help in his unbelief, 
extend mercy to all who, half-alive, crave 
help in their half-deadness. 

Suspense is preparation, and should be 
utilized as preparation. That it should 
be attests that it can be. . . . Sus- 
pense tempts one to do nothing; it ought 
contrariwise to stir up one to do every- 
thing. 

During suspense we can prepare our- 
selves only for anything by preparing our- 
selves for everything. The prepared man 
secures ** a happy issue " out of suspense, 
whatever that issue may be. But the un- 
prepared man ? 

It is marvellous what openings seem to 
invite our neighbor to lead forlorn hopes, 
storm breaches, grapple with sanitary, or 
social, or spiritual, or what-not foes. Yet 
more marvellous is it that we do not see 
our own way even to bringing up the rear 
of a hopeful hope! 



XlQbt on tbe 2)aili2 ©atb 115 

During this probational period not some 
influences only, but all influences as they 
touch us, become our trials, tests, tempta- 
tions, assayed by which we stand or fall, 
are found wanting or not wanting, as 
genuinely as will be the case with us in the 
last tremendous Day of Account. . . . 
Over and over again w^e have been judged 
and condemned or else acquitted ; over and 
over again we have stood or fallen to our 
own Master. 

Not the Last Day alone, every day is a 
Judgment Day. 

Day and night the Accuser makes no 

pause. 
Day and night protest the Righteous Laws, 
Good and Evil witness to man's flaws. 

Day and night our Jesu makes no pause. 
Pleads His own fulfilment of all laws. 
Veils with His perfections mortal flaws. 

A gloomy Christian is like a cloud before 
the rainbow was vouchsafed. But the 
heavenliest sort of a Christian exhibits 



ii6 IRetlectcD Xl^bte 

more bow than cloud, walking the world 
in a continual thanksgiving; and '* a joyful 
and pleasant thing it is to be thankful." 

** Thanks be to Him that sat on the 
throne,'' — To overflow with thankfulness 
is virtually to render thanks. Thankless 
thanks, on the contrary, are no thanks at 
all. . . . True knowledge adores, 
thanks, and ever follows on to know the 
love of Christ which passeth knowledge. 

Derived life praises its Fountain; im- 
parted life its Bestower; life which begins 
yet ends not, the Endless Life which sus- 
tains it endless. 



We must be congruous members of our 
Divine Head if we desire to share His 
beatitude; we must tread the same steps 
if we aspire to the same goal. 

Wherefore to serve becomes a privilege; 
to lack, an endowment; to think simply, 
a profitable exercise; to be sensible of 
weakness, a safeguard; to undergo shame, 
a medicine; to endure provocations, a 
stimulus to prayer. 




If I pray not at the hour of prayer, the hour passes." — Page 117. 



%igbt on tbe WM^ patb 117 

This reverses the world's judgment; but 
the world and its lust are to pass away. 



Shrink as we may from facing the conse- 
quences of our faults, yet lost opportunities 
are and must remain lost. If I pray not at 
the hour of prayer, the hour passes and I 
have not prayed. If I pray not the ap- 
pointed prayer at the appointed moment, 
the moment passes and I have not prayed. 

The done is done once and for ever: the 
undone remains undone and past doing. 
The eleventh hour of man's long working- 
day closes; that day was the preparation, 
and the Sabbath draws on. 

Dirt has been defined as '* matter out 
of place." Some faults, where actually 
placed, are faults; placed elsewhere they 
might develop into virtues. 

Let obstinacy cleave to the right side, 
covetousness hanker after the best gifts, 
rashness launch out into ventures of faith, 
timidity fear not them that can kill the 
body, but only Him who can destroy both 



ii8 IReflecteD %iQbtB 

soul and body; and then obstinacy, covet- 
ousness, rashness, timidity, may look up 
and lift their heads, for their redemption 
draweth nigh. 

The sinner's own fault. So it was. . . . 

Clearly his own fault. Yet I think 
My fault in part, who did not pray, 
But lagged and would not lead the way: 

I, haply, proved his missing link. 
God help us both to mend and pray! 

A few are charged to do judgment; 

every one, without exception, is charged 

to do mercy. I may doubt if I am one of 

a few; I cannot doubt whether I am one 

of every one. 

4- 

In performing my daily duties I must 
strive against the spirit of a frightened 
slave, and must aim instead at the con- 
formed will of a loving child. I ought to 
shrink more sensitively from sin than from 
punishment. 

There is one temple whereof I am cus- 
todian and votaress; of its services, devo- 



ILt^bt on tbe Balls ipatb 119 

tions, worship, I alone shall have to render 
an account : ' ' Know ye not that ye are the 
temple of God^ and that the Spirit of God 
dwelleth in you V 

O Christ the Lamb, O Holy Ghost the 
Dove, 
Reveal the Almighty Father unto us, 
That we may tread Thy courts felicitous. 

Loving who loves us, for our God is Love. 

* * He that water eth shall be watered also 
himself.'' — Our neighbor languishes, is 
weak, wavers, is ready to perish: whoso 
strives, by prayer or by any other conceiv- 
able agency, to uphold him shall himself 
be upheld. 

** Am I my brother s keeper ? ** Yes. 

Intercessory prayer is truly our Gate 
Beautiful: outside it sits the halting multi- 
tude of our brethren and sisters; we, by 
God's blessing on our weak walk and en- 
deavor, can enter the Temple through that 
gate, and not we ourselves alone, but 
bringing others with us. Blessed are they 



I20 IReflecteD %iQhte 

who, frequenting that gate, enter by it into 
the presence of God; they are making 
ready for a future day whereon to enter 
into His presence through a Gate of Pearl. 

•i- 
To walk in Christ* s incomparable foot- 
steps is both easy and difficult. The easi- 
ness lies in our surroundings, the difficulty 
in ourselves. Flesh is weak, and spirit is 
too often unwilling, otherwise any neigh- 
borhood might become to us holy as Pales- 
tine. There waits in every direction good 
to be done, and He ''went about doing 
good." 

A fall is not a signal to lie wallowing, 
but to rise. 

It is not the signal I should choose, yet 
it is the signal I have chosen. 

Having chosen it wrongly, let me at least 
obey it rightly. 

Angels see us though we see them not; 
they hear us though we hear them not. 

Open-faced angels are no more angels 
than angels unawares. 



) 



%\Qbt on tbe Datl^ patb 121 

Lord, whomsoever Thou shalt send to me, 
Let that same be 

Mine Angel predilect; 
Veiled or unveiled, benignant or austere; 

Thine, therefore mine, elect. 

•5- 

God's chastisement is always good: my 
response may be either good or evil. 

On what does my response depend ? 
On my own will. 

To perform a duty from a motive which 
is not wrong may prove a step toward per- 
forming it from the motive which is right. 
To leave it unperformed seems the last 
contrivance adapted to result in its per- 
formance. 

* * / saw a new heavens and a new earth, * * 
— Meanwhile the first heaven and the first 
earth make up our present lot. Of those 
others God giveth us not yet so much as to 
set a foot on, although He promises them 
to us for a possession. The temporary 
heaven and earth, above, around, beneath 



122 IReflecteD ILlgbta 

us, import us now, supply now things con- 
venient for us. These we are bound to 
use, and by no means to misuse or neglect. 
* ' He that is faithful in that which is least ^ 
is faithful also in micch,'' 

* ' When He shall appear ^ we shall be like 
Him,'' — Day by day, hour by hour, mo- 
ment by moment, the Divine likeness 
should be developing in each of us. The 
progressive work may be hidden, — 



( ( 



Who ever saw the earliest rose open her 
sweet breast ? " — 



and well is it that from our too self-con- 
scious eyes it is hidden! — but none the 
less, line upon line, here a little and there 
a little, the transfiguring process must be 
going on. Or else, woe is us ! the latent 
likeness is inevitably weakening, diminish- 
ing, even if not yet ready to vanish away. 



Shall I choose my good things here or 
hereafter ? 



Xiabt on tbe Bailie patb 123 

Shall I choose sweet that turns to bitter- 
ness ? or bitter that turns to sweetness ? 

Shall I choose life that leads to death ? 
or death that leads to life ? 

Shall I choose — nay, what am I choos- 
ing ? 

When speculation fails, resort to practice. 

Every Christian is at least a minor mis- 
sionary. Example preaches more power- 
fully than words; intercession converts as 
mightily as sermons; alms supply the 
sinews of that war whose weapons are not 
carnal. 

Whoso judges harshly is sure to judge 
amiss. . . . Judge not thy neighbor's 
walk except to follow or to lead him. 

It is well to pray for others as for our- 
selves, but to mistrust ourselves rather 
than others. Myself in some degree I am 
bound to know and am bound to judge. 



124 IReflecteD ILigbts 

To value our neighbor's good gifts in 
such a manner as to sympathize with their 
misuse, is so far to share in the misuse 
though not at all in the gifts. It is to go 
halves not even in a bubble investment, 
but simply in an impending bankruptcy. 

''Ajust man falleth seven times and ariseth 
up again.'' — Full of comfort as is this text, 
its comfort hath yet a limit. We must not 
rearrange the proverb and say: He that 
falleth seven times is a just man. . . . 
Not the fall but the arising forms our clue 
to his identity. Not any number of falls, 
few or many, but that same number of 
arisings proves him just. 

The just man at his sixth fall is perhaps 
less likely to quote the proverb than is the 
unjust man at his eighth! 

* ' Unstable as water, ' ' — One only process 
is there which renders water stable in itself 
— the process of freezing. If we be 
** watery " characters, we may not im- 
probably need chills and shadows of life 
to harden us; full, unbroken, cloudless 



%iQbt on tbe Daily patb 125 

sunshine might evaporate us altogether, so 
that even if sought our place should no- 
where be found. 

Let us be provoked to good works by 
those with whom we cannot altogether 
agree, yet who in many ways set us a pat- 
tern. Why exclusively peer after defects 
while virtues stare us in the face ? 

In every precept of duty a consequent 
glory is bound up. The great things we 
are forbidden to ask for ourselves bear no 
proportion to the good things which God 
layeth up for them that love Him. 

So lips say; but does conduct say so ? 

Lord, if not hitherto, henceforward. 

If I long to improve my brother, the 
first step towards doing so is to improve 
myself. 

Living branches are borne by the root, 
and through the root only can have com- 
merce with the earth. What cannot be 



126 IReflecteD Xi^bta 

compassed or indulged in as by Christ's 
member, is unfit to be compassed or in- 
dulged in at all. 

** Here is not your rest,'' — Foothold we 
must needs have — at least until we be 
made equal unto the angels — but let us 
pray against roothold. A foot may spurn 
the ground it cannot choose but tread; a 
root grasps and holds fast the soil whence 
it sucks subsistence, and whence often- 
times it cannot be wrenched except to die. 

''As the doves to their windows,"" — Let 
us strive to rise above our natural and far 
above our present level, for the farthest 
view is from the loftiest standpoint. 
Doves at windows command a much 
wider horizon than moles on hillocks; 
whilst a mole who takes his ease or grubs 
inside a hillock — what chance has he of 
seeing ? 

** A molten or graven image " of gold or 
silver is strictly and literally reproduced 



%igbt on tbe WM^ patb 127 

nowadays and for us moderns, although in 
altered guise, in the current coin of the 
realm. It depends upon myself whether 
I make it my minister or my idol. 

* * U'nfo our God kings and priests, ' * — 
Each of us is king, with subject self to 
rule; priest with leprous self to examine 
and judge. 

''Here we have no continuing city.'' — 
Earth is a racecourse, not a goal. Instead 
of mansions she pitches tents. Her nearest 
approach to a permanent abode is the 
grave. 

Oh, what is earth, that we should build 
Our houses here, and seek concealed 
Poor treasures, and add field to field. 
And heap to heap and store to store, — 
Still grasping and still seeking more, 
While step by step Death nears the door ? 

Earth is small compared with space. 
And space is small compared with infinity. 
Let us not lose our soul to gain the world 
— the smallest of all three areas! 



128 1Reflecte& %igbte 

To look back at the past is oftentimes 
the best guarantee for the future. 

Looking back along life's trodden way, 
Gleams and greenness linger on the 
track ; 
Distance melts and mellows all to-day, 
Looking back. 

Rose and purple and a silvery gray — 

Is tM^ the cloud we called so black ? 
Evening harmonizes all to-day. 
Looking back. 

Foolish feet, so prone to halt or stray, 

Foolish heart, so restive on the rack! 
Yesterday we sighed, but not to-day 
Looking back. 

** JVow set your heart and your soul to seek 
the Lord your God, ** 

Thou art Thyself mine aim, O Lord my 
King; 

Stretch forth Thy hand to save my soul ; 
What matters more or less of journeying ? 

While I touch Thee I touch my goal. 



LIGHT THROUGH SHADOWS 

Shadows befit probation. Whilst set in 
their midst I must thankfully utilize them. 

Shadows to-day, while shadows show God's 
will, 

• •••••• 

Whose marvels and whose mysteries fulfil 
Their course, and deep in darkness serve 
Him still. 



129 







(U 

Ui 

J3 



o 

a 

V 

u 
o 



<3 



<5> 






Only a substarrce can cast a shadow. 
To-day while daylight lasts let us study 
the shadows vouchsafed us ; when our 
night falls, for us they will vanish. Heze- 
kiah had his faith confirmed by a shadow. 
The ** shadow of Peter passing by " was 
not lightly to be regarded. 

Let us sit down amid Divinely cast 
shadows with great delight; it is good for 
us to be here. 

Lie still, my restive heart, lie still; 

God's word to thee saith: ** Wait and 

bear.** 
The good which He appoints is good, 
The good which He denies were ill, — 
Yea, subtle comfort is thy care. 
Thy hurt a help not understood. 

A shadowed life is no hardship to loving 
souls consciously abiding under the shadow 
of the Almighty; weary indeed would this 

1.-51 



132 TReflecteD %iQbtB 

world's land be without the shadow of that 
Great Rock! 

Tribulation — that is, sifting — sifting re- 
claims and releases good from bad, while 
aught of good remains. ** Now no chasten- 
ing for the present seemeth to be joyous^ but 
grievous j nevertheless afterward it yieldeth 
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them 
which are exercised thereby,'' 

Sorrow hath a double voice, 

Sharp to-day but sweet to-morrow; 

Wait in patience, hope, rejoice. 
Tried friends of sorrow. 

Pleasure hath a double taste. 

Sweet to-day but sharp to-morrow; 

Friends of pleasure, rise in haste, 
Make friends with sorrow. 

Pleasure set aside to-day 

Comes again to rule to-morrow; 

Welcomed sorrow will not stay — 
Farewell to sorrow! 



Hi^bt tbrou^b Sba^ows 133 

We have all seen a literal fire pale and 
dwindle under strong sunshine, but, when 
screened off into comparative darkness, 
regain color and recover strength. Thus 
sunshine of earthly happiness may easily 
prove too exhausting for some souls. And 
then it will be the good hand of our God 
upon them which sends darkness of sor- 
row — even, if need be, darkness of death. 

Are we beset by shadows ? Let us 
resolutely walk in them; for by sitting 
down we should never emerge from them. 

Shadows to-day, while shadows show God's 
will : 
Light were not good except He sent us 

light ; 
Shadows to-day because this day is 
night, 
Whose marvels and whose mysteries fulfil 
Their course, and deep in darkness serve 
Him still. 

** Ve shall have tribulation ten days,'' — 
There is comfort in the certainty that 



134 IReflecteD Xl^bte 

though the limit of my trial may be hidden 
from me, by God that limit is prefixed and 
is all along well known ; the end is planned 
and adjusted from the beginning. . . . 
Ten days of darkness may shine to the 
glory of God, like ten lamps of wise virgins 
who with oil in their lamps go forth to 
meet the bridegroom. Ten days of trial 
should be treasured more than ten pieces 
of silver; holy souls should take jealous 
heed lest one be wasted or lost. Ten days 
are as ten servants entrusted with ten 
pounds capable of multiplication. 

Good is human sorrow, for it makes 
mortal men so far like Christ, who learnt 
sorrow for their sakes. 

All is good which bears the stamp of a 
Divine likeness. 

If grief be such a looking-glass as shows 
Christ's face and man's in some sort 
made alike, 
Then grief is pleasure with a subtle 

taste: 
Wherefore should any fret or faint or 
haste ? 



3Ll5bt tbrougb SbaDowa 135 

Grief is not grievous to a soul that knows 
Christ comes, and listens for that hour 
to strike. 

Presumably for most of us tribulation 
rather than ease constructs the safe road 
and the firm stepping-stone. Better to be 
taught by thorns of the wilderness and 
briars, than in no wise to be taught. 

Be our pangs schoolmasters to bring us 
to Christ! 



Hourly, momentarily, there come to me 
mercies or chastisements. The chastise- 
ments themselves are veiled mercies, as it 
were veiled angels. The mercies that I 
name chastisements are no less merciful 
than those which at once I recognize as 
mercies, — no less so if filially I bow my 
will to the Divine Will. 

Lo, thou mine Angel with transfigured face, 

Brimful of grace, 

Brimful of love for me ! 

Did I misdoubt thee all that weary while ? 



136 IReflecteD ILlgbte 

How light a heart befits one whose bur- 
den the Ahnighty deigns to carry with him ! 

Sorrow of saints is sorrow of a day, 

Gladness of saints is gladness evermore; 
Send on thy hope, send on thy will 
before. 
To chant God's praise along the narrow 
way. 

** Man IS born to trouble as the sparks 
fiy upward,'' — And by God's grace he can, 
while life lasts, in whatever smoke, fly up- 
ward. 

To fly up on any terms, on any wings, 
must be beneficial. 

Joy is but sorrow 
While we know 
It ends to-morrow: 

Even so! 
Joy with lifted veil 
Shows a face as pale 
As the fair, changing moon, so fair and 
frail. 



Xigbt tbrou^b SbaDovvg 137 

Pain is but pleasure 

If we know 
It heaps up treasure: 

Even so! 
Turn, transfigured Pain, 
Sweetheart, turn again, 
For fair art thou as moonrise after rain. 



LIGHT FROM NATURE 

To him that hath ears to hear, any good 
creature of God may convey a message. 

The merest grass 

Along the wayside where we pass, 

Lichen and moss and sturdy weed, 

Tell of His love who sends the dew, 

The rain and sunshine too. 

To nourish one small seed. 



139 



''And God saw that it was good, ' ' — And 
though the things which are seen are tem- 
poral, yet a work of the Creator is, and 
cannot but be, so great that neither the 
profoundest nor most illuminated saint, 
nor all the saints summed up together, 
will have exhausted the teaching of things 
visible, even when the hour comes for them 
to give place to things now invisible. 

** All things are double one against an- 
other.'' — Everything cognizable by the 
senses may be utilized as symbol or para- 
ble. To such an exercise some minds 
seem strongly drawn. . . . To them 
matter suggests the immaterial; time, 
eternity. 

Lord, grant us eyes to see 
Within the seed a tree. 

Within the glowing egg a bird, 
Within the shroud a butterfly; 

141 



142 IReflecteD %\qMb 

Till, taught by such, we see 
Beyond all creatures Thee, 

And hearken for Thy tender word 
And hear it: '* Fear not, it is I/* 

The present heaven and the present 
earth must pass away, but meanwhile they 
praise God. The sea must be no more to- 
morrow, yet to-day it magnifies its Maker. 

Heaven and earth and sea are jubilant, 
Jubilant all things that dwell therein; 
Filled to fullest overflow they chant, 
Still roll onward, swell. 
Still begin 

Never-flagging praise interminable. 

Thou who must fall silent in a while. 

Chant thy sweetest, gladdest best at once ; 
Sun thyself to-day, keep peace and smile; 
By love upward send 

Orisons, 
Accounting love thy lot, and love thine 
end. 

** TAe people that stood by and heard it, 




The poppy saith, ... 
' Yet juice of subtle virtue lies 
Within my cup of curious dj'^es.' " — Page 143. 



3Ltgbt trom mature 143 

said that it thundered ; others said an angel 
spake to Him.'' — One notices a storm; an- 
other discerns an angel. One hears thun- 
der; another divines a message. Well it 
is, in default of better, to skim the surface 
and learn a little ; though better it is, God 
willing, to search in the depths and learn 
much. 

Flowers preach to us if we will hear: 

The rose saith in the dewy morn, 

** I am most fair; 

Yet all my loveliness is born 

Upon a thorn.** 

The poppy saith amid the corn : 

** Let but my scarlet head appear 

And I am held in scorn ; 

Yet juice of subtle virtue lies 

Within my cup of curious dyes.*' 

The lilies say: ** Behold how we 

Preach, without words, of purity.** 

The violets whisper from the shade 

Which their own leaves have made: 

** Men scent our fragrance on the air, 

Yet take no heed 

Of humble lessons we would read.** 



144 IReflecteD Ulgbta 

But not alone the fairest flowers: 

The merest grass 

Along the roadside where we pass, 

Lichen and moss and sturdy weed, 

Tell of His love who sends the dew, 

The rain and sunshine too, 

To nourish one small seed. 

All that we see rejoices in the sunshine. 
All that we hear makes merry in the 
Spring; 
God grant us such a mind, to be glad after 
our kind. 

And to sing 
His praises evermore for everything! 

Much that we see must vanish with the 
sunshine. 
Sweet Spring must fail, and fail the choir 
of Spring; 
But Wisdom shall burn on when the lesser 
lights are gone. 

And shall sing 
God*s praises evermore for everything. 

* * The heaven departed as a scroll when it 
is rolled together,'' — Meanwhile it is spread 



Xlgbt trom Bature 145 

out above all human-kind as an open scroll 
declaring the glory of God. 

Our Lord is designated as the '* Sun of 
Righteousness " by a Prophet. The sun, 
without a peer, rules over the planetary 
system. But Christ, with ** lips full of 
grace," deigns to call Himself " the Bright 
and Morning Star " ; which star solitary in 
office and in dignity lights up hope for the 
darkened world and promises and ushers 
in day after night. . . . Turning to a 
parable of nature, we perceive that the 
bright and morning star which renews our 
gladness is none other than the sweet, 
calm evening star of our twilight solace. 

Popular tradition fixes the number of the 
Wise Men at three. 

Did those three alone see the star ? 
Presumably not. Did others, seeing, 
arise ? We read of none such. Faith 
and good-will made all the difference be- 
tween seer and seer. 

As then, so now. 

The starry heavens are so far like their 

and our Maker that they answer and in- 
10 



146 TReflecteD %iQbte 

struct each man according to his honest 
intention, his tolerated stumbling-block, 
his bosom-idol, as the case may be. 

To some they say nothing. Some they 
address through the intellect exclusively. 
While to Magi (that is, to wise men) they 
declare the glory of God, and show His 
handiwork. 

*' They shall shine as the stars.'* — The 
star floats in heaven, and has no contact 
with the earth except by sending thither 
its own radiance. Earth-born clouds stop 
at an immeasurable distance below its 
altitude. . . . 

Christians are called to be like stars — 
luminous, steadfast, majestic, attractive. 

Lord, grant us calm, if calm can set forth 
Thee, 
Or tempest, if a tempest set Thee forth, 
Wind from the east or west or south or 
north, 
Or congelation of an icy sea; . . . 

Still let the earth abide to set Thee forth, 
Or vanish like a smoke to set forth Thee. 



Xigbt from Vlature 147 

Let us encourage ourselves, though He 
slay, us yet to trust Him, by help of some 
of those parables of nature familiar to us 
all, which speak of life reborn from life- 
lessness or from death or from decay, — 
a leafless tree, a chrysalis, a buried seed, 
an egg. 

The twig sproutetn. 

The moth outeth. 

The plant springeth, 

The bird singeth: 

Though little we sing to-day, 

Yet are we better than they ; 

Though growing with scarce a showing, 

Yet, please God, we are growing. 

The twig teacheth. 
The moth preacheth, 
The plant vaunteth. 
The bird chaunteth 
God's mercy overflowing. 
Merciful past man's knowing. 
Please God to keep us growing 
Till the awful day of mowing! 



148 IRetlectet) %iQbte 

Behold in heaven a floating, dazzling cloud, 
So dazzling that I could but cry, Alas! 
Alas, because I felt how low I was; 
Alas, within my spirit if not loud, 
Foreviewing my last breathless bed and 
shroud: 
Thus pondering, I glanced downward on 

the grass; 
And the grass bowed when airs of heaven 
would pass, 
Lifting itself again when it had bowed. 
That grass spake comfort ; weak it was and 
low, 
Yet strong enough and high enough to 
bend 
In homage at a message from the sky: 
As the grass did and prospered, so 
will I ;— 
Though knowing little, doing what I know, 
And strong in patient weakness till the 
end. 

** Behold^ He cometh with clouds ^ But 
we know not whether at that supreme mo- 
ment any one will even notice clouds. 
Now is our time to avail ourselves of them 



%iQbt from IRature 149 

if we aim at living by every word that pro- 
ceedeth out of the mouth of God. Each 
common cloud may serve to remind us of 
the Ascension and of the clouds of the 
second Advent. Also of the great cloud 
of witnesses who already compass us about, 
. who perhaps will then become as 
nothing to us when we stand face to face 
with Christ our Judge: ** A^ the brightness 
of His presence His clouds removed T 

The hills are tipped with sunshine, while 
I walk 
In shadows dim and cold; 
The unawakened rose sleeps on her stalk 
In a bud's fold, 

Until the sun flood all the world with 
gold. 

The hills are crowned with glory, and the 
glow 
Flows widening down apace; 
Unto the sunny hilltops I, set low. 
Lift a tired face, — 

Ah, happy rose, content to wait for 
grace ! 



150 IReflecteD JLl^bte 

How tired a face, how tired a brain, how 

tired 
A heart I lift, who long 
For something never felt but still de- 
sired, — 
Sunshine and song — 
Song where the choirs of sunny heaven 
stand choired. 



* * The desert shall rejoice and blossom as 
the rose.'' — Or if this fallen world's wilder- 
ness never rejoice, nor its desert ever blos- 
som, yet wherever Holy Church abides, she 
herself is ** a garden inclosed": where 
even one holy soul sojourns there blooms 
** a lily among thorns.'' 

** He shall grow as the lily.'' — White- 
ness of purity, greenness of hope, a comely 
aspect, a head uplifted : once in their 
passion the martyrs became as lilies among 
thorns, and now in their rest they are 
beautiful as lilies in the garden of their 
Beloved. Is it not **to gather lilies" 
when He takes home His own unto Him- 
self ? Is it not " to feed among the lilies " 



%iQbt from mature 151 

when He sups with them and they with 
Him? 



Clothe us as Thy lilies of a day, 

As the lilies Thou accountest fair, — 
Lilies of Thy making, 
Of Thy love partaking, 
Filling with free fragrance earth and air: 
Thou who gatherest lilies, gather us and 
wear. 



Color seems to be simply an analysis of 
light; if so, the withdrawal of light in- 
volves no mere disappearance of color, but 
its absolute absence. 

By an awful parallel this suggests how 
** He that hath the Son hath life; and he 
that hath not the Son hath not life." Cut 
off from the Dayspring of color, there can 
be no color; from the Source of goodness, 
no goodness; from the Fountain of grace, 
no grace; from the Root of life, no life. 

Colorless light paints the rainbow — all 
color being latent in it. 



152 IReflecteD Xl^bts 

Light colorless doth color all things else: 

Where light dwells pleasure dwells, 

And peace excels. 

Then rise and shine 

Thou shadowed soul of mine, 

And let a cheerful rainbow make thee fine. 

4- 

The saints are strangers and pilgrims, 
dwellers in tents, sojourners as all our 
fathers were. They resemble air-plants 
rather than earth-plants, yet are by no 
means tossed about by every wind. 

Yet earth was very good in days of old, 

And earth is lovely still; 
Still for the sacred flock she spreads the 
fold. 

For Sion rears the hill. 

She spreads the harvest-field where angels 
reap. 
And lo! the crop is white; 
She spreads God's acre where the happy 
sleep 
All night, that is not night. 



%igbt trom IFlatute 153 

Earth may not pass till heaven shall pass 
away, 
Nor heaven may be renewed 
Except with earth; and once more in that 
day 
Earth shall be very good. 

•^ ■ ' 

** And there ivas no more sea.'' — And 
wherefore not the sea ? 

Because the sea nourished and brought 
up no harvest. It bore no fruits which re- 
main ; it wrought no works which follow it. 
It was moreover originally constructed as 
a passage, not as an abode ; across it man 
toiled in rowing to the haven where he 
would be, but itself never was and never 
could become that haven. Thus it pre- 
sents to us a picture of all that must be left 
behind. 

All tears done away with the bitter unquiet 
sea, 
Death done away from among the living 
at last; 
Men shall say of sorrow (love grant it to 
thee and me!) — 
At last, '* It is past! " 



154 IReflecteD %iQhtB 

O sights of our lovely earth, O sound of 

our earthly sea, 
Speak to me of Paradise, of all blessed 

saints to me; 
Or keep silence touching them, and speak 

to my heart alone 
Of the Saint of saints, the King of kings, 

the Lamb on the throne. 



THE LIGHT OF SACRIFICE 

Give thou wings to my riches, and bid 
them fly as eagles toward heaven. . . . 
For earthly gold, which though it be tried 
seven times in the fire, perisheth, give me 
such imperishable gold as Thou usest for 
New Jerusalem and crowns of Thy saints 
triumphant. 



155 




H 



o 
u 

o 
>> 

V 

c 

u 

3 



a! 

6 

bo 

c 

3 
O 

u 



0) 



Self-conceit blinds ; self-will destroys ; 
self-oblation consecrates; self-sacrifice 
saves. ** Whosoever will lose his life for 
My sake shall fi7id it. ' ' 

My God, wilt Thou accept, and will not we 

Give aught to Thee ? 
The kept we lose, the offered we retain 
Or find again. 

Yet if our gift were lost, we well might lose 

All for Thy use, — 
Well lost for Thee, whose love is all for us 

Gratuitous. 



The ** rich young man'* turned away 
sorrowful. Yet if he had stayed to sift 
those unexpected words of grace, he might 
have thanked God and taken courage. 
Sell . . . a7td give'' J it is not merely 
give ' * but * ' sell ' * also : the spiritual 
price would have remained to the obedient 

157 



( < 



( { 



158 IReflecteD %iQbt6 

seller, and have been invested in the secure 
treasury. The material gift he might re- 
tain at the longest for a lifetime; its in- 
tangible, substantial price for ever and 
ever. 

I see the pity of it that the Young Ruler 
appreciated not, so far as is recorded, his 
unique chance. I see it as regards him; 
what see I as regards myself ? If I see it 
as regards myself, what then do I? 

Whoso barters earthly gold for meat for 
the hungry, drink for the thirsty, clothing 
for the destitute — any good gift for any 
forlorn soul or body — shall find it after 
many days refined into the glass-like gold 
of the eternal city. A profitable exchange 
and a goodly ! 

The gold of that land is good. The 
gold which I offer Thee must be purified 
in the fire — fire of self-denial, of self-sacri- 
fice, of love. 

HE- 

What we have experienced, felt, done, 
bears witness to what we have not yet ex- 
perienced, felt, done. The self-surrenders 



tlbe %iQbt ot Sacrifice 159 

of earth rehearse in their rapturous tri- 
umph the all-surrendering self-surrender of 
heaven. The best gifts are those which 
can be given back to the Giver. Them it 
is generous to covet earnestly. 

Crouch lowest to spring highest. Dis- 
perse abroad and give to the poor, so shall 
thy riches make themselves wings and fly 
as eagles towards heaven. Strip off thine 
ornaments now, that they may become 
chains about thy neck hereafter. To- 
night turn from the west in its fading pur- 
ple, and set thy face steadfastly toward the 
east, where, out of darkness, golden glory 
and roses of a dawn that sets not will be 
revealed. 

Shall others go up from the extreme out- 
posts of peril, the heights and depths of 
difficulty, — they the forlorn hope of the 
Christian army, they the violent whose 
violence the kingdom of heaven suffers, — 
and will not we go up from our peaceable 
habitations, sure dwellings, quiet resting- 
places ? Forbid it, honor ! forbid it, 
shame! 



i6o TReflecteD %igbtB 

*' One sorrow more! I thought the tale 
complete/' 
He bore amiss who grudges what he 
bore: 
Stretch out thy hands and urge thy feet to 
meet 
One sorrow more. 

Yea, make thy count for two or three or 

four: 
The kind Physician will not slack to treat 
His patient while there *s rankling in the 

sore. 

Bear up in anguish, ease will yet be sweet; 
Bear up all day, for night has rest in 
store : 
Christ bears thy burden with thee, rise and 
greet 
One sorrow more. 

Neither is all wealth poor nor all poverty 
rich. The widow who cast two mites into 
the treasury by so doing became rich, but 
had she kept them she would have re- 
mained simply ** a poor widow/* God 



XLbc Xl^bt ot Sacrifice i6i 

then sat in the congregation of princes 
visibly as Judge; still He sits invisibly; 
yet a little while and again He will sit 
visibly. Now He sits as a refiner and 
purifier of silver; then He will acknowl- 
edge every gift He has purified and ac- 
cepted. God will be no man's debtor. 

Then will come to light, transfigured, 
every offering in righteousness: — the gold, 
frankincense, myrrh, of wise men; the 
boats and nets of fishermen; the money of 
the exchanger; the loaves and small fishes 
of disciples; the ointment and alabaster 
box of loving women ; houses, lands, a cup 
of cold water. All riches which have 
spread wings and flown away as eagles 
towards heaven shall then reappear as 
treasures in heaven. 

Beloved, yield thy time to God, for He 

Will make eternity thy recompense; 
Give all thy substance for His love, and be 
^Beatified past earth's experience. 

' * Ho/d fast that which is good. ' * — Shall 
we fill our hands with possessions which 

zx 



162 IReflectet) %\Qbte 

are not worth holding fast ? Hands 
emptied by showing mercy to the poor are 
set free to hold fast what God will require 
of us ; hearts emptied of self are prepared 
to receive and retain all He will demand: 
— that which is good, with the Thessa- 
lonians ; the apostolic form of sound words, 
with Timothy; our profession, and confi- 
dence, and rejoicing of hope firm unto the 
end, with all faithful Christians. 



Christ is our fountainhead and our 
abyss; we begin in Him, we end in Him. 
What He maketh us, we are; what He be- 
stoweth on us, we possess. We, as it were, 
pour and empty ourselves and our treasures 
into Him, yet we enrich Him not; what 
have we that we have not received ? The 
gifts He gives us are and remain His; we 
only, ourselves, unless we abide in Him, 
retain neither life nor portion. 

O Lord, what can I give, except Thou 
first furnish it ? All is of Thy bounty, and 
but for Thine own gifts we can have no 
gift for Thee. I beseech Thee to give us 



^be %iQbt ot Sacrifice 163 

each some good gift, and receive it back 
as our gift to Thee. 

4- 

When the pinch of famine comes, they 
will be prepared to bear it who already for 
charity's sake have learned and practised 
to suffer hunger. They who have kept the 
Fast of God's choosing by dealing their 
bread to the hungry, will even in extremity 
know Whom they have trusted. 



THE LIGHT OF PENITENCE 

O Jesus, gone so far apart 

Only my heart can follow Thee, 

That look which pierced St, Peter's heart 
Turn now on me. 

Thou who dost search me through and 
through, 

And mark the crooked ways I went, 
Look on me, Lord, and make me too 

Thy penitent. 



165 



Innocence hedged in Eden; sin break- 
ing in through that hedge disparadised 
Paradise, so far as mortal man was con- 
cerned. 

Guilt hedges in the world; penitence 
breaking in through that hedge recovers 
and re-enters Paradise, now made the ante- 
room of Heaven. 

Can peach renew lost bloom, 
Or violet lost perfume ? 
Or sullied snow turn white 
As overnight ? 

Man cannot compass it, but never fear; 

The leper Naaman 

Shows what God will and can ; — 
God who worked there is working here. 

To me, to most of us, the heritage of 
penitence is of more practical importance 
than the heritage of innocence. 

Innocence we cannot recover, but purity 
and guilelessness we, by God's help, may: 
and if these graces have led the innocent 
to glory, us also they may yet lead to glory. 

167 



i68 IReflecteD %iQbtB 

Whiteness most white: ah, to be clean 
again 
In mine own sight and God's most holy 
sight! 
To reach through any flood of fire or pain 
Whiteness most white! 

Lord, not to-day; yet some day bliss for 
bane 
Give me; for mortal frailty give me 
might ; 
Give innocence for guilt, and for my stain 
Whiteness most white. 



Repentance is the particular form of 
obedience practicable by even the most 
imperfect. 

Lord, I repent; help Thou mine im- 
penitence! 

Whoso hath anguish is not dead in sin, . . . 
Red heat of conflagration may begin. 
Melt that hard heart, burn out the dross 
within ; 
Permeate with glory the new man entire, 




''Whiteness most white : ah, to be clean again ! ''—Page ^6?:. 



i 



Sbe atlgbt ot penitence 169 

Crown him with fire, mould for his hands 
a lyre 
Of fiery strings to sound with those who 

win. 
Anguish is anguish, yet potential bliss, 
Pangs of desire are birth-throes of de- 
light : 
Those citizens felt such who walk in 
white, 
And meet but no more sunder with a kiss; 
Who fathom still unfathomed mysteries. 
And love, adore, rejoice, with all their 
might. 

Good Lord, to-day 

I scarce find breath to say: 

Scourge, but receive me! 
For stripes are hard to bear, but worse 
Thy intolerable curse. 

So do not leave me! 

Good Lord, lean down 

In pity, though Thou frown ; 

Smite, but retrieve me; 
For so Thou hold me up to stand 
And kiss Thy smiting hand, 

It less will grieve me. 



170 1Reflectc& %iQbtB 

** To him that overcometh will I give 
, . . a white stone^ and in the stone a 
new name written^ which no man knoweth 
saving he that receiveth it,'' 

** Lord, shall there be a secret between 
Thee and me ? *' 

** Soul, is there not now already a secret 
between Me and thee ? I know thy name 
now, whether thou be Impenitent Sinner 
or Sinful Penitent. I know it now, but 
none other knoweth it fully; neither dost 
thou fully know it. Hereafter, if thou be 
of those who overcome, thou shalt know 
even as thou art known.*' 

* * Lord, I pray Thee, make me now 
what it will please Thee to call me then! " 

Before the beginning Thou didst see the 
end. 
Before the birthday the deathbed was 
seen of Thee; 
Cleanse what I cannot cleanse, mend what 
I cannot mend, 
O Lord All-merciful, be merciful to me ! 
While the end is drawing nigh I know not 
my end. 



Zbc %iQbt ot penitence 171 

Birth I recall not, my death I cannot 
foresee ; 
O God, arise to defend, arise to befriend, 
O Lord All-merciful, be merciful to me ! 

On the dead for whom Thou diedst. 
Lord Jesus, have mercy. 

Ont he living, for whom Thou ever livest, 
have mercy. 

Thou who wast arraigned before an un- 
just judge, O Incorruptible Judge, have 
mercy. 

Thou who knowest what is in man, O 
Son of Man, have mercy: 

On the great, mercy: on the small, 
mercy. 

Thou who art unlike us in Thy sinless- 
ness, on us sinners have mercy. 

Thou who art like us in Thy Humanity, 
on us Thy brethren and sisters, have 
mercy. 

And whatsoever we lack, let us not lack 
Thy mercy. Amen. 

My faith burns low, my hope burns low. 
Only my heart's desire cries out in me, — 



172 IReflecteO %lQbte 

By the deep thunder of its want and woe 
Cries out to Thee. 

Lord, Thou art life, though I be dead, 
Love's fire Thou art, however cold I be; 

Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my 
head, 
Nor home — but Thee. 

** ne books were opened,'^ — My page in 
the Book of Works is to me awful ; . . . 
it is my life's record without oversights, 
without false entries or suppressions: any 
good set down accurately as good ; all evil, 
unless erased by Divine Compassion, set 
down accurately as evil. Nothing is there 
but what I have genuinely endeavored, 
compassed, done, been. I meant it all, 
though I meant not to meet it again face 
to face. 

Blot out our evil works from Thy Book 
of Works, and have mercy, O God! Write 
our names in Thy Book of Life, and have 
mercy. Amen. 

There is no Divine promise which peni- 
tence may not claim ; no height, no depth 
of Divine Love secluded from penitence. 



?Jbe %iQht of penitence 173 

I dare not then say simply, Penitence 
may ; — I am driven to say with self-mistrust 
and trembling, Penitence mus^, on pain of 
ultimate rejection, recover purity and 
guilelessness. 

My God, my God, have mercy on my sin, 

For it is great; and if I should begin 
To tell it all, the day would be too small 
To tell it in. 

My God, Thou wilt have mercy on my sin 
For Thy love's sake; yea, if I should 
begin 
To tell f/iis all, the day would be too small 
To tell it inl 



Loss is never simply recouped; the pre- 
cise forfeit is not restored. Loss may re- 
main irretrievable, or it may be more than 
compensated. 

Trembling before Thee we fall down to 

adore Thee, 
Shamefaced and trembling we lift our eyes 

to Thee: 



174 IReflecteD XlQbt6 

O First and with the last! annul our ruined 

past, 
Rebuild us to Thy glory, set us free 
From sin and from sorrow to fall down and 

worship Thee. 
Full of pity view us, stretch Thy sceptre to 

us. 
Bid us live that we may give ourselves to 

Thee ; 
O Faithful Lord and True! stand up for 

us and do, 
Make us lovely, make us new, set us free, 
Heart and soul and spirit, to bring all and 

worship Thee. 



LIGHT FROM THE CROSS 

If we could forget the Tree of Life, can 
we forget that tree of death whereon Christ 
hung so that He might become our Life ? 



175 



What is it Jesus saith unto the soul ? — 
** Take up thy cross, and come and fol- 
low Me." 
One word He saith to all men, none may 
be 
Without a cross, yet hope to reach the goal. 
Then heave it bravely up, and brace thy 
whole 
Body to bear, it will not weigh on thee 
Past strength; or if it crush thee to thy 
knee, 
Take heart of grace, for grace shall be thy 
dole. 

No cross, no crown; no humiliation, no 
glory: — Such is the rule for fallen man. 
And Christ, who took upon Himself our 
nature and calls us brethren, exempted not 
Himself from the common lot. He willed 
thus to become like us; we by following 
Him shall in our turn put on a measure of 
His likeness. To-day He denies not His 
beloved crosses and humiliations: to-mor- 

12 



178 IReflecteD Xl^bt^ 

row what will He deny to them whom He 
invests with crowns and glory? '' What 
shall be done unto the man whom the king 
delighteth to honor ? ' ' 



The Bride is exhibited as arraying her- 
self '* in fine linen, bright and pure.'* 
Righteous acts have woven that lustrous 
linen, acts of all saints from the beginning 
to the end. Spotless and radiant now, it 
has been steeped in tears and bleached in 
the heat of the day; woven and at length 
without flaw from the top throughout, it 
forms one fair unbroken web ; but held up 
to that light which manifests all works, be- 
hold! its warp and woof have not been 
wrought into a perfect whole except by the 
interweaving of cross threads — of crosses. 

The acts and crosses of every day, your 
acts and crosses and my own, are capable 
of reappearing in that achieved glory. 

Every cross after its kind: the one Cross 
has ramified into unnumbered crosses. 



%iQbi from tbe Qxobb 179 

Thy Cross cruciferous doth flower in all 
And every cross, dear Lord, assigned to 
us; 
Our lowly statured crosses. Thine, how 
tall . . . 
Thy Cross alone life-giving, glorious! 
For love of Thine souls love their own 
when small, 
Easy, and light, or great and ponderous. 

* * T/ie city lieth four-square. ' ' — That city's 
angles therefore are right angles. Turn 
such angles inward from circumference to 
centre, and they form a perfect cross. 

The cross is the nucleus of heaven. 
Already faith beholds it thus, and loves it 
for that which it is, and for that which 
shall unfold from it. Angles inward, the 
cross of probation; angles outward, the 
square of perfection. 

Deeds wrought in God become emi- 
nently glorious when wrought under stress 
of sorrow with patience, with faith, hope, 
and charity. Such affliction will turn to 



i8o IReflecteO Xtgbt0 

gladness, such sifting and testing will 
certify, such poverty will enrich. 

Lord, what have I to offer ? — sickening 
fear 
And a heart-breaking loss. 
Are these the cross Thou givest me ? — then 
dear 
I will account this cross. 

** Even as I also overcame y — It is Thou, 
Lord, who sayest, ** Even as I '' ; for which 
of us had dared to say it ? Thou over- 
earnest in our stead, and happy are we if 
we overcome in Thy strength. Thou over- 
camest for us without our help, and Thou 
wilt overcome in us and by us except we 
hinder. 

I bore with thee long, weary days and 
nights. 
Through many pangs of heart, through 
many tears ; 
I bore with thee — thy hardness, coldness, 
slights — 
For three-and-thirty years. 



%iQbt from tbe Ctosa isi 

Who else had dared for thee what I have 
dared ? 
I plunged the depth most deep from bliss 
above ; 
I not my flesh, I not my spirit spared, — 
Give thou Me love for love. 

Nailed to the racking cross — than bed of 
down 
More dear, whereon to stretch Myself 
and sleep, — 
So did I win a kingdom, — share my crown; 
A harvest, — come and reap. 

** JVo man, having put his hand to the 
plough, and looking back, is fit for the king- 
dom of God,'' — The cross we have shoul- 
dered we must not lay down. The burnt 
sacrifice we have become we must con- 
tinue to be, though offered on a slow fire. 
Nor dare we say: ** It is finished," until 
Christ Himself shall say concerning us: 
*' It is finished." 

Thou who didst hang upon a barren tree, 
My God, for me, 



i82 IReCecteD %igbt6 

Though I till now be barren, now at length, 

Lord, give me strength 

To bring forth fruit to Thee. 

Thou who didst bear for me the crown of 

thorn, 
Spitting and scorn. 
Though I till now have put forth thorns, 

yet now 
Strengthen me Thou, 
That better fruit be borne. 

^' Not quickened except it die,'' — Every 
seed after its kind: the Corn of Wheat 
which died is replenishing the world's wide 
harvest-field. 



LIGHT FOR THE VALLEY OF THE 
SHADOW OF DEATH 

If Christ hath died, His brethren well may 

die, 
Sing in the gate of death, lay by 
This life without a sigh. 



183 



Parallels cannot converge. If Christ, 
the Life, occupy and pervade us, death 
cannot annex us. Death may run along- 
side of us all our days, and hold out hands 
of invitation to seduce us, or clench fists 
and raise an outcry as if it could do us a 
mischief; but death and Christ's members 
tend to different points; and there is noth- 
ing it can really effect to harm us so long 
as we cleave to Christ by faith, lean on 
Him by faith, hold Him fast and not let 
Him go by love. 

It is not death, O Christ, to die for Thee; 
Nor is that silence of a silent land 
Which speaks Thy praise so all may 

understand. 
Darkness of death makes Thy dear lovers 

see 
Thyself who wast and art, and art to 

be ... . 
Death is not death, *and therefore do I 

hope, 

185 



i86 TReHecteD Xl^bta 

Nor silence silence, and I therefore sing 
A very humble, hopeful, quiet psalm, — 
Searching my heart-field for an offering. 

* * To-day^ ' ' said our Lord, ' * shalt thou 
be with me in paradise, ' ' 

Heaven is not far, though far the sky 

Overarching earth and main; 
It takes not long to live and die, 

Die, revive, and live again. 

And on the birthday of life immortal, 
anguish of pain shall be forgotten for joy 
of being born into the eternal world. 

If Christ had not died, it might have 
appeared almost the chief of human ex- 
emptions not to die; but since Christ 
elected to die, which of us would dare 
choose not to die, as though to be less 
Christlike could be more excellent ? 

If Christ hath died, His brethren well may 
die, 
Sing in the gate of death, lay by 




" If Christ hath died, His brethren well may die." — Page i86. 



%iQbt tot tbe \Dallei3 ot 2)eatb 187 

This life without a sigh: 
For Christ hath died, and it is good to die, 
To sleep whenso He lays us by, 
Then wake without a sigh. 



*' Blessed are the dead which die in the 
Lordfrofu henceforth. ' ' — Blessed the death, 
be it what it may, whereby one by one the 
long, not half-recorded series of the elect 
die in the Lord, — workers wearing out inch 
by inch; the sick wrung by agony or bur- 
dened with long-drawn weariness; men 
suffering the more because strength holds 
out, women the more because weakness 
shrinks; children in their degree but 
spared foresight. We understand at a 
glance how blessed it is for these to ** die 
in the Lord." 

Yea; and blessed also it is for these, 
and such as these, to live! Life is their 
work-day, and their works will follow 
them. 

All weareth, all wasteth, 
All flitteth, all hasteth, 



1 88 lReflecte& Ifgbts 

All of flesh and time ; 

Sound, sweet heavenly chime, 

Ring in the unutterable, eternal prime. 

Man hopeth, man feareth, 
Man droopeth: — Christ cheereth, 
Compassing release, 
Compassing with peace. 
Promising rest where strife and anguish 
cease. 

Saints waking, saints sleeping. 
Rest well in safe keeping; — 
Well they rest to-day, 
While they work and pray, — 
But their to-morrow's rest what tongue 
shall say ? 

Sometimes the harvest is white and 
garnered before the harvest months are 
fulfilled. Sometimes it stands unreaped 
long after we would fain have chanted 
harvest-home. Thank God that *' the 
reapers are the angels '' and not our short- 
sighted selves, and that not even angels 
may reap unsent. 



%igbt tot tbe IDalle^ of Deatb 189 

Bitter is it to long for life and die; more 
bitter is it to long for death and it cometh 
not. Christ in His boundless mercy pre- 
serve us through bitterness of life from 
bitterness of death. 

Bitterness that may turn to sweetness is 
better than sweetness that must turn to 
bitterness. 

Nothing which can end is unbearable. 

Man cannot fully live * * except first he 
die.*' 

To seek death is sinful ; yet to desire it 
may be saintly. 

From rebellious death, sudden death, 
lifeless death, good Lord, deliver us. 



** Seek Him that . . . turneth the 
shadow of death into the Morning.*' 

O Christ, the Resurrection and the 
Life, Light of the world and of every man 
that cometh into the world, call Thy dead 
out of darkness of death into light of life. 
Say once again, ** Let there be light," and 
there shall be light. 



iQo IReflecteD Xl^bts 

O Christ our Light, whom even in dark- 
ness we 
(So we look up) discern and gaze upon, 
O Christ, Thou loveliest Light that ever 
shone. 
Thou Light of light, Fount of all lights 

that be. 
Grant us clear vision of Thy light to see! 

* * The keys . . .of death. ' ' — No key 
need be preserved to the end were the 
door not at last to be reopened. Many 
times opened to admit, once for all it will 
be opened to release. * * There is hope in 
thine end, * * 

The goal in sight! Look up and sing. 
Set faces full against the light. 

Welcome with rapturous welcoming 
The goal in sight. 

Let be the left, let be the right ; 
Straight forward make your foosteps ring 
A loud alarum through the night. 

Death hunts you, but is reft of sting; 
Your bed is green, your shroud is white: 



?rbe VMc^ ot tbe SbaDow of 2)eatb 191 

Hail, Life and Death and all that bring 
The goal in sight! 

He who was made like unto us knoweth 
whereof we are made. He feels with us 
as well as for us; He died, as we all must 
die; He lives again, as by His grace we all 
may rise to life everlasting. . . . His 
death and His life as it were salute us: 

O ye dead, believe on Me and ye shall 
live; O ye living, believe and ye shall never 
die. 



LIGHT FROM PARADISE 

Oh, for the grapes of the True Vine 

Growing in Paradise, 
Whose tendrils join the Tree of Life 

To that which maketh wise, — 
Growing beside the Living Well 

Whose sweetest waters rise 

Where tears are wiped from tearful eyes. 



193 



** I believe in the Communion of Saints. 



» > 



Lord, make me one with Thine own faith- 
ful ones, 
Thy saints who love Thee and are loved 

by Thee, 
Till the day break and the shadows 
flee, — 
At one with them in alms and orisons, 

At one with him who toils and him who 
runs, 

And him who yearns for union yet to be, 
At one with all who throng the crystal sea 
And wait the setting of our moons and suns. 
Ah, my beloved ones gone on before. 
Who looked not back with hand upon 
the plough. 
If beautiful to me while still in sight. 
How beautiful must be your aspects now ! 
Your unknown, well-known aspects in 
that light 
"Which clouds shall never cloud for ever- 
more! 

195 



ig6 IReflecteD Xlgbta 

In the perfected Communion of Saints, 
surely the general glory of all will satisfy, 
no less than the special glory proper to 
each will recreate. I could no more im- 
agine a perfected saint so immersed in 
universal love as to be rapt out of the 
particular, than so absorbed in particular 
love as to be estranged from the universal. 

One with another, soul with soul, 

They kindle, fire from fire ; 
Friends watch us who have touched the 
goal ; 

They urge us. Come up Higher. 
With them shall rest our waysore feet, 

With them is built our home. 
With Christ. They sweet, but He most 
sweet. 

Sweeter than honeycomb. 

There no more parting, no more pain, 
The distant ones brought near. 

The lost so long are found again — 
Long lost but longer dear: 

Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard. 
Nor heart conceived that rest, — 



Xlgbt from paraMse 197 

With them our good things long deferred, 
With Jesus Christ our Best. 

It is a comfortable and Divine promise 
that ** when He shall appear we shall be 
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'* 
Recognition, then, is one revealed point of 
Christ-likeness : He recognizing us, we 
must all recognize Him. And because 
*' every one that is perfect shall be as His 
Master," surely that supreme beatific 
recognition involves all congruous blessed 
recognitions ; Christ recognizing us all, 
we should so far be un-Christlike if we 
recognized not each other. 

Each with his own, not with another's 
heart. 
Each with his own, not with another's 
face, — 
O faces unforgotten, if to part 

Wrung sore, what will it be to re- 
embrace ! 

** A friend loveth at all tiniest — Let us 
thank God that this blessed text is without 



igs IReflecteD ILf^bta 

limitation. Once loving, we cannot love 
too long. Death and the grave need make 
no difference. *' Out of sight, in mind," 
would be a proverb worthy of Christians. 

Safe where I cannot lie yet, 
Safe where I hope to lie too, 

Safe from the fume and the fret — 
You and you, 

Whom I never forget. 

Safe from the frost and the snow. 
Safe from the storm and the sun, 

Safe where the seeds wait to grow 
One by one. 

And to come back in blow. 

In that veiled land saints abide. Some 
saints who loved us on earth are there, 
saints whom we loved and love. If we call, 
they do not answer. Surely one reason 
why they neither appear nor audibly re- 
spond to our desolate cry may be that, if 
it is hard for us now to love supremely 
God whom we see not, it would be yet 
harder were those who, even in His eyes, 



Xlgbt from pataDtee 199 

are lovely and desirable, to woo us heaven- 
ward with unforgotten familiar human 
tenderness. 

This separation to them is not grievous, 
and for us it is safe. 

If I should say, '* My heart is in a grave,*' 
I turn away from Jesus risen to save; 

I slight that death He died for me; 

I, too, deny to see 

His beauty and desirability. 

Lord, whose heart is deeper than my 

heart. 
Draw mine to worship where Thou art. 

Who would wish back the saints upon our 
rough 
Wearisome road ? 

Wish back a breathless soul 
Just at the goal ? 
My soul, praise God 
For all dear souls who have enough. 

1 would not fetch one back to hope with 

me 
A hope deferred, 



200 1Reflecte& Xighte 

To taste a cup that slips 
From thirsting lips: 
Hath he not heard 
And seen what was to hear and see ? 

How could I stand to answer the rebuke, 
If one should say: 

'' O friend of little faith, 
Good was my death. 
And good my day 
Of rest, and good the sleep I took ** ? 



Hidden from the darkness of our mortal 
sight. 

Hidden in the Paradise of lovely light, 

Hidden in God's presence, worshipped face 
to face, 

Hidden in the sanctuary of Christ's em- 
brace : 

Up, O Wills! to track him home amid the 
blest; 

Up, O Hearts! to know him in the joy of 

Where no darkness more shall hide him 
from our sight. 




Unspotted lambs to follow the one Lamb."— /^^^-^ 201. 



Xtgbt ttom iparaMee 201 

Where we shall be love with love and light 

with light, 
Worshipping our God together face to face, 
Wishless in the sanctuary of Christ's em- 
brace. 

These babes: speech was scarcely in 
their mouths, much less guile. On earth 
their feet could barely have trotted or 
tottered after a literal lamb. 
Who now beholds them sees them " follow 
the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. * ' Hath 
He gone up to glory ? so have they: to 
dominion and power ? so have they. Their 
grace is eternized, their lustre eternized, 
their feet rank with wings, their speech has 
become song. 

Unspotted lambs to follow the one Lamb, 

Unspotted doves to follow the one 

Dove; 

To whom Love saith, ** Be with Me where 

lam,'' 

And lo ! their answer unto Love is love. 

For though I know not any note they 
know, 



202 IReflecteD %\Qbte 

Nor know one word of all their song 
above, 
I know Love speaks to them, and so 
I know the answer unto Love is love. 

*' The Paradise of God ": — were it not 
* ' of God ' ' it would not be Paradise. 

Joy to thee, Paradise, 

Garden and goal and nest! 
Made green for wearied eyes; 

Much softer than the breast 
Of mother-dove clad in a rainbow's dyes. 

All precious souls are there 

Most safe, elect by grace. 

All tears are wiped forever from their 
face: 
Untired in prayer 

They wait and praise. 

Hidden for a little space. 

Boughs of the Living Vine, 
They spread in summer-shine 

Green leaf with leaf: 
Sap of the Royal Vine, it stirs like wine 

In all, both less and chief. 



5Li3bt from iParaDise 203 

Sing to the Lord, 

All spirits of all flesh, sing! 
For He hath not abhorred 

Our low estate nor scorned our offering: 

Shout to our King. 

There is dignity, joy, comfort, a present 
blessing, and a future beatitude in the 
Communion of Saints. 

To us each unforgotten memory saith: 
** Learn as we learned in life's sufficient 

school ; 
Work as we worked in patience of our 
rule; 
Walk as we walked, much less by sight than 

faith ; 
Hope as we hoped despite our slips and 
scathe. 
Fearful in joy and confident in dule. 
I know not if they see us or can see ; 
But if they see us in our painful day. 
How, looking back to earth from 

Paradise, 
Do tears not gather in those loving 
eyes ? — 



204 IRellecteO SLiflbts 

Ah, happy eyes! whose tears are wiped 
away 
Whether or not you bear to look on me. 

So may my soul nurse patience day by day, 
Watch on and pray, 

Obedient and at peace; 
Living a quiet life in hope, in faith, 
Loving till death, 

When life, not love, shall cease. 

O Lord God Omniscient, I thank Thee 
on behalf of all those who have not felt or 
who no longer are called on to endure the 
pang of bereavement. I thank Thee for 
ourselves, who humbly trust that some we 
love rest safely in Paradise. Whom grant 
us grace to follow. Amen. 



LIGHT FROM TIME 

Be wise betimes, and with the bee 
Suck sweets from prickly tree, 
To last when earth's are flown; 
So God well pleased will own 
Your work, and bless not time alone 
But ripe eternity. 



205 



What is Time ? It is not subtracted from 
Eternity ; neither is it substituted awhile 
for Eternity. Perhaps I shall not mislead 
my own thoughts by defining it as that 
condition or aspect of Eternity which con- 
sists with the possibility of probation. 

Time seems not short 

If so I call to mind 

Its vast prerogative to loose or bind, 
And rear and strike amort 

All humankind. 

Time seems not long 

If I peer out and see 

Sphere within sphere, Time in Eternity, 
And hear the alternate song 

Cry endlessly. 



** There shall be no night there ^ — Days 
which alternate with nights make up time, 
— time fraught with danger at its best. 

207 



2o8 IReflecteD %\Qbt6 

This temporal mortal life needs restric- 
tions as it were both by day and night. 

This is twilight that we know, 
Scarcely night and scarcely day; 

This hath been from long ago 
Shed around man's way. 

This is twilight: be it so, — 
Suited to our strength our day; 

Let us follow on to know, 
Patient by the way. 



Heaven and earth alike are chronom- 
eters. 

Heaven marks time in light, by the mo- 
tion of luminaries. 

Earth marks time in darkness, by the 
variation of shadows. 

To these chronometers of nature art adds 
clocks, with faces easily discernible and 
voices insistently audible. 

Nature and art combine to keep time for 
us, and yet ... we lose time, we 
waste time, we kill time, we do anything 



XlQbt trom XLimc 209 

and everything with time except * ' redeem 
the time." 

Yet time is short and swift, and never 
returns. 

(If time is short, many tempers are yet 
shorter!) 

Our life is long. — Not so wise angels say, 
Who watch us waste it, trembling while 

they weigh 
Against eternity one squandered day. 

Our life is long. — Not so the saints protest. 
Filled full of consolation and of rest: 
** Short ill, long good, one long unending 
best/' 

Our life is long. — Christ's word sounds 

different : 
** Night cometh; no more work when day 

is spent.*' 
Repent and work to-day; work and repent. 

In so far as time is long, I comprehend 

that it suffices for the work of salvation. 

In so far as it is short, I comprehend that 

it contains not one superfluous moment. 
14 



2IO IReflecteD %ighte 

Heaven's chimes are slow, but sure to 
strike at last ; 
Earth's sands are slow, but surely 

dropping through; 
And much we have to suffer, much to do, 
Before the time be past. 

Chimes that keep time are neither slow 
nor fast ; 
Not many are the numbered sands nor 

few; 
A time to suffer, and a time to do, 
And then the time is past. 

Much of earth will find no entrance into 
heaven. Not sin alone ; things which have 
been allowable, inevitable, even expedient, 
will yet have to perish in the using. To 
cling tenaciously to such as these, then, is 
disproportionate; to cling passionately is 
idolatrous. 

From building on the sand, and not on 
the rock; from gaining though it were the 
whole world and losing our own soul, 
Deliver us, Lord Jesus. 

From cleaving to anything apart from 




« 

s* 

I 



V 



a 

u 
O 

a, 
B 

V 
*J 

V 

u 

a 

a 

V 
V 
M 

V 

U 
<a 

o 

c 



V 
'i-t 

Xi 

bi3 

3 

O 

H 



XlQbt from Zimc 211 

Thee, from loving anything incompatible 
with Thee, 

Deliver us. Lord Jesus. 

Time passeth away with its pleasure and 
pain, 
Its garlands of cypress and bay, 
With wealth and with want, with a balm 
and a bane, 
Time passeth away. 

Eternity cometh to stay, 
Eternity stayeth to go not again: 
Eternity barring the way. 

Arresting all courses of planet or main, 
Arresting who plan or who pray. 

Arresting creation, — while, grand in its 
wane. 
Time passeth away. 

Tt// I come,'' — How long is that 
till *' ? We cannot compute its days, 
weeks, months, years. But this we know: 
the remainder of time is the extent of that 
** till ''; all eternity is the fulness of the 






212 IReflecteD %iQbte 

thereafter. Is time long ? It may seem 
so, until it ends. Is eternity long ? It is 
so, for it ends not. 

Short is time, and only time is bleak ; 

Gauge the exceeding height thou hast to 
climb; 
Long eternity is nigh to seek, — 

Short is time. 



^' Behold^ I come quickly y — Not the 
creature of time, but only the Lord of 
time and eternity can pronounce upon 
what is or is not quickly brought to pass. 
At eighteen we think a year long, at eighty 
we think it short: what terminable dura- 
tion would seem long to us, what such 
duration would not seem short, if we had 
already passed out of time into eternity ? 
Wherefore only He who saith '* quickly 
can define '' quickly. 



o saiui quicKiy " 



*'' And the angel . . . sw are by Him 
that liveth for ever and ever . . . that 
there should be time no longer. ' * 



%iQbt from Clme 213 

Time lengthening, in the lengthening 
seemeth long, 

But ended time will seem a little space, — 
A little while from morn to evensong, 

A little while that ran a rapid race, 
A little while when once Eternity 

Denies proportion to the other's pace: 
Eternity to be and be and be. 

Ever beginning, never ending still, 
Still undiminished far as thought can see. 



'* From Him which is^ and which was^ 
and which is to come.'' — Parallel with creat- 
ures, with time, with all beginnings and 
all ends, abides the eternal **is." We, 
creatures of time, who might instinctively 
have written ''was — is — is to come," are 
thus helped, not indeed to understand, 
but to adore, the inconceivable, eternal, 
absolute unchangeableness of God. 

Lo, if our God be love through heaven's 
long day, 
Love is He through our mortal pilgrim- 
age, 



214 iReflecteD It^bts 

Love was He through all eons that are 
told : 
We change, but Thou remainest ; for Thine 
age 
Is, Was, and Is to come, nor new, nor 
old: 
We change, but Thou remainest, yea and 
yea! 



LIGHT FROM ETERNITY 

Feel sure that heaven will be better than 
earth; and that if any earthly good reap- 
pear not there, it will be superseded, not 
lost. 

I will not look unto the sun 
Which setteth night by night; 

In the untrodden courts of heaven 
My crown shall be more bright: 

Lo, in the New Jerusalem, 
Founded and built aright, 
My very feet shall tread on light. 



215 



We live after a sort, but all the while we 
are dying. We who dying live can form 
no true conception of what the true, full, 
unstricken, undying life will be. Life, 
though along with many pleasures and 
alleviations, is now a matter of pains and 
aches, hunger and thirst, faintness and 
weariness; — this is the life we experience. 
That other life will not be such; we realize 
not yet what it shall be. 

What will it be, O my soul, what will it be 
To touch the long-raced-for goal, to handle 

and see! 
To rest in the joy of joys, in the joy of the 

blest, 
To rest and revive and rejoice, to rejoice 

and to rest! 

Earth at its loftiest and loveliest is still 
only earth: and though God's appointment 
makes it *' good for us to be here," in 

217 



2i8 IReflecteD %iQbte 

itself and compared with the lowest place 
in heaven earth is not good. 

We know not when, we know not where, 

We know not what that world will be, 
But this we know: it will be fair 

To see. 

With heart athirst and thirsty face 

We know a.nd know not what shall be ; — 
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace 

To see! 

Christ Jesus bring us of His grace 

Beyond all prayers our hope can pray, 
One day to see Him face to face, — 

One day. 

* * / saw as it were a sea of glass mingled 
with fire,'' — Fire is added not to consume, 
but is ** mingled ** with that sea to illum- 
inate, flash, augment beauty; even as the 
fiery, milky opal would not be half itself 
without its spark. For Redemption now 
exceeds Creation, and the fiery trial 
through which the elect have pressed after 



TLiQbt trom iBtenitti^ 219 

Christ, being past as a trial, endures as a 
perpetual splendor. None but victors 
stand upon that sea. 

An untroubled sea, or it could not be of 
glass; a pure sea, or it could not be of 
crystal. 

^^ And I saw the holy city^ New Jerusa- 
lem^ coming down from God, ' ' — New Jerusa- 
lem has been gathered from the uttermost 
part of the earth to the uttermost part of 
heaven; stone by stone, soul by soul, here 
a little and there a little. Laps of luxury, 
fires of temptation, ease of riches, squalor 
of destitution, mountains of difficulty, 
valleys of humiliation, — each has sent up 
its prefixed weight, number, measure, 
nothing lacking, nothing over. 
Behold her, and also thyself, O thou called 
to be a saint! Her perfections are thy 
birthright; thou art what she was; what 
she is thou mayest become. 

A lovely city in a lovely land, 
Whose citizens are lovely, and whose 

King 
Is Very Love. . . . 



220 1Reflccte& %iQbt6 

A bower of roses is not half so sweet, 
A cave of diamonds doth not glitter so, 
Nor Lebanon is fruitful set thereby: 
And thither thou, beloved, and 
thither I 
May set our heart and set our face, and 

go 
Faint yet pursuing home on tireless feet. 

What will it be at last for citizens of all 
cities upon earth to see a **holy" city! 
Truly as yet this also ** eye hath not 
seen"; nor is so much as one material 
foundation-stone laid of such. 

Nevertheless whoever seeks citizenship 
at last in that all-holy city must now day 
by day watch, pray, labor, agonize, it may 
be, to sanctify his allotted dwelling in his 
present ** mean city.'* 

* * T/ie length and the breadth and the height 
of it are equal'' — there. Here, human 
works and ways are deplorably out of rela- 
tive proportion. Pride towers. Anger 
spurns barriers. Avarice burrows, Lust 
saps limits. Gluttony overheaps the meas- 
ure. Sloth drones out of time. 



%\ght from Btetnlti^ 221 

Yet length, breadth, height, are settled 
quantities not amenable to mortal whims 
and ways. O Man, O Woman, whether 
thou be acute-angled or obtuse-angled, 
accommodate thyself betimes to thine 
optional habitat; for if thou fit not thyself 
to it by rectification of every line and 
angle, it will not fit itself to thee by so 
much as a hairbreadth. Meanwhile be 
of good cheer. ** Twelve thousand fur- 
longs *' may suffice thee for space. If 
here thou must be squeezed and stretched 
to bring thee into shape, look outward and 
upward to the ensuing amplitude. 

4- 

** TAe city was pure gold, like unto clear 
glass. '^ — Earthly gold is opaque, heavenly 
gold translucent; yet a blessed alchemy 
resorted to betimes transmutes the baser 
into the more precious: ** Give alms; pro- 
vide yourselves ... a treasure in the 
heavens that faileth not." 

•* Pure gold " and " clear glass *' alike 
have stood the fire. 

* * The twelve gates were twelve pearls, * ' — 



222 IReflectcD %igbt6 

Since in this world pearls are not to be 
clung to and delighted in, so by a figure 
even those celestial pearls show forth how 
God prepares better things for His dutiful 
children, — a gate is to be passed through, 
not to be resided in. 

I long for pearls, but not from mundane 
sea; 
I long for palms, but not from earthly 
mould; 
Yet in all else I long for, long for Thee, 
Thyself to hear and worship and be- 
hold, ... 
Or if not thus for Thee, yet Thee I pray 
To make me long so. 

The ** gates'' bear perpetual witness 
that man inhabits heaven not of right but 
of grace. The open gates bear permanent 
witness to human free will, still free even 
when made indefectible. ** A brother or 
sister is not under bondage," — love alone 
constrains such. The gate of Eden honors 
Law; the gates of New Jerusalem honor 
Love. 



ILiQht trom Bternlti^ 223 

** T/iaf great city . . . had a wall 
great and high.'' — That New Jerusalem 
has a wall expresses to me a local, distinct, 
defined heaven; not indiscriminate as were 
the waters before the formation of a con- 
tinent, nor without form like void chaos; 
but a genuine home with recognizable feat- 
ures and amiabilities of a home meet for 
those who have weaned themselves from 
earth on the promise and faith of heaven. 

Home by different ways, yet all 

Homeward bound through prayer and 
praise ; 

Young with old and great with small, 
Home by different ways. 

** And the city had no need of the sun 
. . . for the glory of God did lighten it, ' ' 
— Be its plenary fulfilment far off or im- 
minent, already man can bask in some 
farthest ray of this promised glory. Wean 
thyself from sensible objects, and thou 
shalt relish the unseen, untouched, un- 
handled. Look beyond the sun and 
moon, and thou shalt see greater things 



224 IReflecteO Xf^bta 

than they. Stint bodily indulgence, and 
thou shalt enlarge spiritual capacity. 

Lift up thine eyes to seek the invisible; 
Stir up thy heart to choose the still un- 
seen ; 
Strain up thy hope in glad, perpetual 
green 
To scale the exceeding height where all 

saints dwell: 
Saints, is it well with you ? — Yea, it is well. 



** What are these which are arrayed in 
white robes 2 " — In this world and from the 
children of this world such questions might 
mean: Are they common folk or gentry ? 
learned or illiterate ? vulgar or refined ? 
worth or not worth knowing ? The grave 
will give us a different view-point. There 
our shallow earthly question will receive 
its answer out of all mysteries and all 
knowledge. 

If this be seemly and inevitable to- 
morrow, why not rectify and elevate our 
standard (my standard) to-day ? 




Lift up thine eyes to seek the invisible."-/^a^^ 



224. 



%\Qbt trom Bternft^ 225 

As the voice of many waters all saints sing 
as one, 
As the voice of an unclouded thunder- 
ing; 
Unswayed by the changing moon and un- 
swayed by the sun, 
As the voice of many waters all saints 
sing. 

Where raiment is white of blood-steeped 
linen slowly spun, 
Where crowns are golden of Love's own 
largessing, 
Where eternally the ecstasy is but begun, 
As the voice of many waters all saints 
sing. 

A heaven of ceaseless music! — a monot- 
onous heaven, a heaven of ceaseless, end- 
less weariness, say some. 

Is music monontonous ? On the con- 
trary, a monotone is not music. No single 
note, however ravishing, amounts to mu- 
sic; musical it may be, but not music. 
Change, succession, are of the essence of 
music. Therefore, when our Christian 
heaven is, by condescension to man's 

IS 



226 IRetlecteD %iQbtB 

limited conceptions, represented as a 
heaven of music, that very figure stamps 
it as a heaven not of monotony, but of 
variety. For in music one sound leads 
inevitably to a different sound; one har- 
mony paves the way to a diverse harmony. 
A heaven of music seems rather a heaven 
of endless progression, of inexhaustible 
variety, rather than of monotony. 

4- 

And wherefore have ye harps, and where- 
fore palms. 
And wherefore crowns, O ye who walk 
in white ? 
** Because our happy hearts are chanting 
psalms. 
Endless Te Deum for the ended fight; 
While through the everlasting lapse of 
calms 
We cast our crowns before the Lamb 
our Might." 

* * T/iey rest not, . . . saying, Holy, 
Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.'' — I sup- 
pose by ** rest not ** we may understand 
cease not, pause not, flag not; their end- 



Xlgbt from Eternity 227 

less worship being an endless contentment, 
their labor a labor of love, their explora- 
tion of unfathomable mysteries as it were a 
skylark's ever-ascending flight. 

Rapture and rest, desire and satisfaction, 
perfection and progress, may seem to clash 
to-day: to-morrow the paradoxes of earth 
may reappear as the demonstrations of 
heaven. 

Once within, within for evermore: 
There the long beatitudes begin; 

Overflows the still unwasting store, 
Once within. 

4- 

** Surely I come quickly,'' -^'^o hope or 
fear, faith or love of ours, is worthy to 
welcome Christ; yet woe is us if they wel- 
come Him not. Woe is us if, amid and 
above the terror and clouds of His ap- 
proach, we hail not His Presence as the 
very bow in the cloud. 

And as sometimes a second bow, fainter, 
less perfect, farther off, appears in the train 
of the chief rainbow, so in His train will 
appear our lost beloved ones who loved us 



228 IReflecteD Xlgbta 

much and Him much more, — a hem as it 
were to His garment, an outer edge to His 
glory, an overflow to our full cup of bliss. 
Close, intimate, flawless as will be the 
communion of beatified saints with each 
other, still closer, more intimate, perfect, 
will be the communion between Christ and 
each saved soul. This is the supreme 
Fellowship which includes and entails the 
other; this is the supreme Union which 
the other is like unto. 

Jesus alone: If thus it were to me, 

Yet thus it cannot be; 

Lord, I have all things if I have but Thee. 

Jesus and all: Precious His bounties are, 
Yet He more precious far: 
Day's-eyes are many, one the Morning 
Star. 

'' They desire a better country^ that is^ an 
heavenly y . . . for He hath prepared 
for them a city, ' * 

Lord, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear, 
And souls to love and minds to understand, 



ILl^bt from JBternit^ 229 

And steadfast faces towards the Holy- 
Land, 
And confidence of hope, and filial fear, 
And citizenship where Thy saints appear 
Before Thee heart in heart and hand 
in hand. 

Rule thyself: and already thou art king, 
freeman, citizen, of no mean city. 

No trace of solitude appears in the next 
life, the life that lives for ever. Whatever 
we know or know not about heaven, this 
beyond possibility of doubt is certified to 
us — it will contain a great multitude that 
no man can number, and these congregated 
into one body, one communion of saints. 
Nothing will ever any more separate them; 
not night, for there is no night there; not 
the sea, for they stand together upon that 
unearthly sea — ** glass mingled with fire." 

Lord, make us all love all, that when we 
meet 
Even myriads of earth's myriads round 
Thy bar, 



230 IRetlecteD %igbt6 

We may be glad as all true lovers are 
Who, having parted, count reunion 

sweet, — 
Safe gathered home around Thy blessed 
feet, 
Come home by different paths from near 
and far. 

For ever and ever, one by one, each 
soul a separate, self-conscious, loving, 
adoring, rejoicing entity: not a drop swal- 
lowed up in an ocean, a flame merged in a 
conflagration, but what it was that it is, 
and that it will be for ever and ever. 

If thus Thy saints have struggled home to 
peace. 
Why should not I take heart to be as 

they ? 
They too pent passions in a house of 
clay. 
Fear and desire and pangs and ecstasies. 

* * And he showed me a pure river of water 
of life^ clear as crystal^ proceeding out of the 
throne, ' * 



%igbt from Eternity 231 

We know not a voice of that River, 

If vocal or silent it be, 
Where for ever and ever and ever 

It flows to no sea. 

Oh, goodly the banks of that River, 
Oh, goodly the fruits that they bear, 

Where for ever and ever and ever 
It flows and is fair. 

For lo, on each bank of that River 
The Tree of Life life-giving grows, 

Where for ever and ever and ever 
The pure River flows. 

*' Eye hath not seen'*: Yet man hath 
known and weighed 
A hundred thousand marvels that have 
been: 
What is it which the Word of Truth hath 
said 
Eye hath not seen ? 

** Ear hath not heard *': Yet harpings of 
delight. 
Trumpets of triumph, song, and spoken 
word, — 



232 IReSecteD TLigbtB 

Man knows them all: what lovelier, loftier 
might 
Hath ear not heard ? 

** Nor heart conceived *': Yet man hath 
now desired 
Beyond all reach, beyond his hope be- 
lieved. 
Loved beyond death: what fire shall yet 
be fired 
No heart conceived ? 

** Deep calls to deep '' : man's depth would 
be despair 
But for God's greater depth. We sow 
to reap; 
Have patience, wait, betake ourselves to 
prayer, — 
Deep answers deep. 



LIGHT HERE AND THERE 

Be it good or ill, be it what you will, 
It needs shall help me on my road. 

Love still is love, whatever comes to pass. 



233 



* * / am Alpha and Omega^ the Beginning 
and the End^ the First and the Last,*' — We 
change, He changes not. Yet even in 
ourselves constitutional changeableness 
cannot annul a certain inherent unchange- 
ableness, which so far corresponds with 
His in Whom we live and move and have 
our being; for '*we are His offspring." 
His Immutability is reflected in our iden- 
tity; as He cannot deny Himself, so we 
cannot deny ourselves. Rocks may fall 
on us, mountains cover us, but under rock 
and mountain remains the inextinguish- 
able I. 

We need everything in Christ, nothing 
out of Christ: that is, we simply need 
Christ. To need is a blessed thing; to 
lack is quite a different thing. ** They 
that fear Him lack nothing,'' 

In Thee God's promise is Amen and Yea: 
What art Thou to us ? Prize of every 
lot, 

235 



236 IRetlccteD %iQbt6 

Shepherd and Door, our Life, and Truth, 
and Way, — 
Nay, Lord, what art Thou not ? 

*' There was silence in heaven about the 
space of half an hour,'' — I think one may 
view this silence as a figure of suspense. 
Reversing which proposition, I perceive 
that a Christian's suspense ought to pre- 
sent a figure of that silence. And if so, 
suspense should sustain my heart in heav- 
enly peace even whilst fluttering over some 
spot of earth; and should become my 
method of worship when other modes fail 
me; and should be adopted by my free 
will whenever by God's will it befals me. 
Faithful, loving suspense would 
be rich in evidence of things not seen and 
heard; and would neither hurry nor lag, 
but would contentedly maintain silence 
during its imposed half-hour. 

A shorter time ? No, on pain of rash- 
ness. A longer time ? No, on pain of 

sullenness. 

4- 

God the Son clothed Himself with our 



I/lgbt Ibere anD Zbctc 237 

nature, to the intent that He might clothe 
us with His own. 

Shall setting day win day that will not set ? 
Poor price wert thou to spend thyself for 

Christ 
Had not His wealth thy poverty sufficed : 
Yet since He makes His garden of thy 
clod, 
Water thy lily, rose, or violet, 

And offer up thy sweetness unto God. 

* * Ife said unto me : Write ; for these 
words are true and faithful,'' — '*True '* is 
isolated, absolute, self-sufficient; ** faith- 
ful " is relative, tenderly considerate. 
*'True'' is an announcement, ** faithful*' 
a promise. 

In the Bible God condescends to employ 
multiform overtures of endearing gracious- 
ness, — wooing, beseeching, alluring, en- 
couraging. We love beauty; He lavishes 
beauty on the sacred text. We desire 
knowledge; He tells us much, and prom- 
ises that one day He will tell us all. We 
are conscious of feelings inexpressible and 
insatiable; He stirs up such feelings, at 



238 IReflecteD Xl^bta 

once directing them and guaranteeing 
their ultimate satisfaction. He works 
upon us by what we can and by what we 
cannot utter; He appeals in us to what 
we can and what we cannot define. 

O Lord Christ, who hast said: Take 
heed how ye hear. 

Because Thou hast called us, give us 
grace to obey Thy call. 

Because they that fear Thee lack nothing, 
give us grace to fear Thee. 

Because they who seek Thee shall want 
no manner of thing that is good, give us 
grace to seek Thee until we find Thee. 

Because Thou lovest them that love 
Thee, give us grace to love Thee. 

Because Thou hast loved them that love 
Thee not, give us grace to love Thee: 
Amen. 



•i^ 



David exhorts us not to fret ourselves 
because of evil-doers: alas! he writes not 
down to the standard of those who fret 
themselves because of the upright. 

From envy, hatred, and malice. Good 
Lord, deliver us. 



%iQbt Ibere an2) Zbctc 239 

It is folly to keep looking for discourage- 
ments away from our own misdeeds and 
shortcomings; yet if we do look around 
and do feel discouraged because neither 
clergy nor candidates for orders are all 
unselfish saints and undaunted heroes, can 
we hold ourselves altogether guiltless of 
their defects ? May they not in turn look 
around and wonder that there are so few 
intercessors, so few to uphold the men 
** subject to like passions as we are," of 
whom we complain so fluently, and for 
whom we pray in stammers ? 

JLe/ us pray. 

The Jerusalem of our day is Holy 
Church, the outward and visible Church 
Catholic. A net she is full of good and 
bad, a field green with tares and wheat, a 
floor laden with grain and chaff. In her 
the not-good are bad, the not-wheat is 
tares, the not-grain is chaff; in her they 
all are, but some of them are not of her; 
all borne with to-day, but some not to- 
morrow. Each of us inevitably is either 
good or else bad, is wheat or else a tare, 
is grain or else chaff. 



240 TReflecteD %iQbtB 

A scandalous Christian is Satan's right 
hand to strengthen evil. 

An inconsistent Christian is his left hand 
to weaken good. 

God made man, Satan unmade man, 
Christ remaketh man. Yet it is also true 
that man makes or unmakes himself by his 
own free-will. 

From our foes protect us, from ourselves 
rescue us, Good Lord. Let not free-will 
turn to self-will and curse our blessings. 

God harden me against myself, — 

This coward with pathetic voice. 

Who craves for ease and rest and joys; — 

Myself, arch-traitor to myself, 

My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe, 

My clog, whatever road I go! 

Yet One there is can curb myself. 
Can roll the strangling load from me, 
Break off the yoke, and set me free. 

In God's strength let us face the conse- 



Xl^bt 1bere an& Zbcvc 241 

quences of our sins. For sins are worse 
than consequences. 

Saints bewail unworthiness more than 
the penalty of unworthiness. 

Worse was it for Babel to be built than 
to be destroyed. 

Empty space, neutral space, is impos- 
sible; it must be occupied by accumulat- 
ing guilt or by repentance unto progressive 
amendment. Space is mine to-day by 
God's gift. 

Lord, I repent; help mine impenitence. 

'*A// the rivers run into the sea^ yet the 
sea is not full.'' — Man is a still wider sea, 
a more insatiable abyss ; this life and the 
resources of this life can never fill him. 

To know without experience is God-like. 
To know by experience is Christ-like. 
Christ being our Head, we His members, 
it beseems us to have the mind of Christ. 

Lord, we are rivers running to Thy sea. 

Our waves and ripples all derived from 

Thee; 
16 



242 IReflecteD Xl^bte 

A nothing we should have, a nothing be, 
Except for Thee. 

Sweet are the waters of Thy shoreless sea. 
Make sweet our waters that make haste to 

Thee; 
Pour in Thy sweetness that ourselves may 

be 

Sweetness to Thee. 

Clirist at His Ascension led captivity 
captive. Thenceforward voluntary cap- 
tivity was constituted rebellion, so that not 
even towards God is the Christian spirit to 
be a spirit of bondage. ''If the Son there- 
fore shall make you free^ ye shall be free 
indeed ,'' 

Sand may curb excursiveness, but can- 
not serve for a foundation. 

There exists of the mezereon a certain 
foreign species whereof the inner bark re- 
sembles lace; insomuch that the women of 
the same region do actually make use of 
it for lace. . . . The plant becomes 



%iQbt Ibete anD Cbcre 243 

our emblem of St. Peter's ideal matron 
** whose adorning let it not be that out- 
ward adorning ... of putting on of 
apparel, but let it be the hidden man of 
the heart." The Creator of all good 
things has Himself decked a plant with 
hidden lace. Is the whole of our lace on 
the surface ? 

Reserve gems and pearls for immortality 
when thou shalt be as flawless as they. 
Adorn thyself meanwhile with flower-like 
graces: humility, the violet; innocence, 
the snowdrop; purity, the lily; with sweet- 
ness for a honeysuckle, with penitence for 
a fruitful thorn. To-day put on the gar- 
ments of salvation prepared for thee, that 
to-morrow thou mayst be promoted to 
wear the garments of praise. 

Field-day harness and the parade-carry- 
ing of bows and arrows will profit a soldier 
nothing in the day of battle. 

" Lent."— Good as it is to understand 
one's own language, I feel neither incited 



244 IReflcctcD Xlgbt6 

nor helped to observe Lent by being re- 
ferred to a German root. 

But when once (however erroneously) I 
connect the word with a loan, — that which, 
being lent, not bestowed, will some day be 
withdrawn, — then it sounds an alarm in 
my ears: 

Forty chances to be used or abused. 

Forty appeals to be responded to or re- 
sisted. 

Forty battles to be lost or won. 

Forty days to be utilized or wasted. 

And then the account to be closed, and 
the result registered! 

It is good to be last, not first, 
Pending the present distress; 

It is good to hunger and thirst, 
So it be for righteousness. 

It is good to spend and be spent. 
It is good to watch and to pray, — 

Life and Death make a goodly Lent 
So it leads us to Easter Day. 

Though we might hesitate to define idol- 
atry as the only sin, yet has every sin its 



%iQbt 1bete anD ^bere 245 

idolatrous side; be the sin what it may, its 
commission is something that is preferred 
before God. 

[Thy trouble] is a surface scourge: kiss 
the rod, and thou shalt abide as the pro- 
found sea whose surface is lashed and 
ploughed by winds, but whose depths re- 
pose in unbroken calm. 

(Alas for shallow persons who are all 
surface!) 

« 
Lord Jesus, grant that sweetness may 

acquaint us with such bitterness as Thou 

approvest, and that bitterness may be to 

us safeguard, not destroyer, of sweetness; 

until the bitterness of death pass and the 

sweetness of life eternal ensue, according 

to Thy will. 

Half-bitterness we know, we know half- 
sweetness; 
This world is all on wax, on wane; 
When shall completeness round time's in- 
completeness. 
Fulfilling joy, fulfilling pain ? — 



246 TRetlecteD OLl^bts 

Lo, while we ask, life rolleth on in fleet- 
ness 
To finished loss or finished gain ! 

Perhaps our lot is cast in a narrow, gall- 
ing groove. Yet better this, surely, than 
that we should dribble in all directions 
into mere slush and mire, come to worse 
than nothing ourselves, and swamp our 
neighborhood. 

To over-cultivate, develop, double a 
flower, destroys its fruitfulness. Such 
double flowers have no future. 

Dost thou thyself ask, * * What good 
shall my life do me ? " Resolve that, 
God speeding thee, it sAal/ do thee good — 
to be numbered among the nations of the 
saved; and thou too shalt one day say, It 
is enough. 

When all the overwork of life 

Is finished once, and, fallen asleep, 

We shrink no more beneath the knife, 
But, having sown, prepare to reap: 



%iQht Ibcvc anD ilbere 247 

Delivered from the crossway rough, 
Delivered from the thorny scourge, 
Delivered from the tossing surge, 

Then shall we find (please God!) it is 
enough. 

Not in this world of hope deferred, 

This world of perishable stuff; 
Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard. 

Nor heart conceived that full '* enough'* : 
Here moans the separating sea. 

Here harvests fail, here breaks the heart; 

There God shall join and no man part. 
All one in Christ, so one (please God!) 
with me. 

** TAe same shall be clothed with white 
raiment y — And how beautiful is whiteness 
for a garment! . . . Nevertheless 
whiteness is not an absence but rather a 
compendium of color. All tints, when 
united in a perfectly balanced harmony 
resolve themselves into whiteness, and con- 
sequently all tints can be re-developed from 
whiteness. Thus colorless light paints the 
rainbow. All color being latent in it, we 



248 IReflecteD 3Ltgbt6 

finally discern in its train every lovely hue 
and gradation of hues. 

If thus it is with one word characteristic 
of heaven, how know we that it is not so 
with every word ? 



* ' Let him that is athirst come, ' ' — Christ's 
word is pledged, the well of water is 
springing up to everlasting life, — what 
doth hinder ? 

Nothing doth hinder, unless it be that I 
thirst not, neither go thither to draw. 
Free is the gift, but I also am free to ac- 
cept or decline it. 

* ' I will give unto him that is athirst of 
the water of life freely,'' — The gift, being 
free, cannot be claimed; yet being by 
promise, the promise can be claimed. To 
desire the gift is to desire the terms of the 
gift. If I thirst not, at least let me thirst 
to thirst! 



A race it is — this life of ours — yet only 
to attain a goal, not to outrun competitors. 
On the contrary there is scarcely a greater 



%igbx 1bere anD XLbctc 249 

help to one's own running than to lend a 
hand to a halting brother or sister. 

Oh, if our brother's blood cry out at us! 
How shall we meet Thee who hast loved 
us all, 
Thee whom we never loved, not loving 

him ? 
The unloving cannot chant with Ser- 
aphim, 
Bear harp of gold or palm victorious, 
Or face the vision beatifical. 



This present life is the first stage of the 
future, ever-during life. Strength, beauty, 
dignity, loveliness, delight, may be added, 
but added only to what we are, never to 
what we are not. What we essentially are 
in this world, that we shall be in the other; 
what here we absolutely are not, we shall 
not be there. 

Concerning Himself God proclaimed of 
old: *' / am that I am "; and man's in- 
herent feeling of personality seems in some 



250 TRetlecteD Xigbts 

sort to attest and correspond to this revela- 
tion. I am what God constituted me, so 
that however I may have modified myself, 
yet do I remain the same I : it is I who 
live, it is I who must die, it is I who must 
arise again at the last day. I, rising out 
of my grave, must carry on that very life 
which was mine before I died, and of 
which death could not altogether snap the 
thread. Who I was, I am; who I am, I 
am; who I am, I must be for ever and 
ever. 

Every ending includes a solemn element. 
Every ending, cutting short, foreshadows 
the ending, cutting short of life. 
When the end is come, the endless end, 
the end which is the final beginning, be 
Thy word to each of us, Come. In us see 
the travail of Thy soul, and be satisfied. 

As rivers seek a sea they cannot fill. 
But are themselves filled full in its em- 
brace, — 

Absorbed, at rest, each river and each rill: 
Grant us such grace. 



Xtgbt 1bere anD Zbcxc 251 

Grant, O Lord, 

To man who must die, an ordered house; 
To the faithless, faith ; 
To the faithful, confirmation of faith ; 
To those who weep, consolation; 
To the elect, joy and gladness; 
To the light-hearted. Thy fear and love; 
To lonely persons. Thy most holy Pres- 
ence; 
To workers, good works; 
To lovers. Divine Love; 
To haters, godly hatred; 
To Thy soldiers and servants, victory; 
And after victory, peace. Amen. 



AUG 18 189S 







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